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QUEEN CHABLOTTE ISLANDS. 



QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS 

A NARRATIVE OF 

DISCOVERY AND ADVENTURE 

IX 

THE NORTH PACIFIC. 

FRANCIS POOLE, O.E. 



EDITED BY 

JOHN W. LYNDON, 

AUTFTOR OF NIXF.TV-THREE, Oil THE STOUT OF T H li EREJTCH RKVOLUTION. 




LOG-HOTJSF, Bl'UKADY ISLAND. 



LONDON: 
HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, 

IP), GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 

1872. 



C 



All Rights reserved. 



A 






Lf?i 



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EDITORS PREFACE. 



Two groups of Islands have been called after the 
Queen-Consort of King George the Third. 

The first group is in the South Pacific Ocean. It 
was discovered in the year 1767, by Captain Car- 
teret, R.N., but has since proved to be of compara- 
tively little significance. 

The second and larger group lies in the North 
Pacific Ocean (lat. 52° to 54° N., long. 132° to 
134° W.), and will supply the chief subject-matter 
of the following pages. 

Captain Cook, R.N., was the first white man who 
is known to have set foot upon those islands of the 
North Pacific. He landed in the year 1776 on their 
northernmost shore, and near a spot which now 
appears in the map as Cook's Inlet. The famous 
navigator minutely describes the incidents of this 
discovery, in the Admiralty edition of his Voyage 



viii editor's preface. 

to the Pacific Ocean (Vol. ii. pp. 416 et seq.), but 
conjectures that certain Russians had visited the 
place before him. He was doubtless aware also of 
land having been sighted, two years previously, in the 
same direction, by Captain Juan Perez, a navigator, 
whom the Spanish Government had sent out with 
a commission to search for the long-desired North- 
West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Cap- 
tain Cook, however, could not tell whether the 
newly-discovered land was an island or merely part 
of the American continent. And, in view probably 
of the insufficient knowledge at his command, he 
forbore to name the country or to claim it, as other- 
wise he would have done, on behalf of the British 
Crown. 

Eleven years afterwards, that is, in the year 1787, 
Captain D a ascertained Cook's discovery to con- 
sist of an extensive insular group ; and, no civilized 
people disputing the right of the English nation to 
it, he took formal possession in the name of King 
George, and christened the acquisition Queen Char- 
lotte Islands. 

That the Islands form together a healthy, pic- 
turesque territory, rich in natural resources and 
well adapted to colonization, this volume will show. 



editor's preface. ix 

Nevertheless, for the space of nearly a century, 
daring which they have belonged to England, 
no serious attempt has been made to colonize 
them. Even the Admiralty survey is still wanting. 
There they lie, waste and fallow, yet marvellously 
productive, and awaiting nothing but Anglo- 
Saxon capital, enterprise, and skill to return 
manifold profit to those who will embark in the 
venture. 

The only educated Englishman who has ever lived 
on Queen Charlotte Islands is Mr. Francis Poole, 
Civil and Mining Engineer. The best portion of 
two years he spent, either in actual residence in that 
outlying dependency, or in laborious work closely 
connected with it. Unfortunately, some years back, 
a severe illness, the evident result of former exertion 
and exposure, prostrated and much enfeebled him. 
This has prevented a detailed account of his dis- 
coveries and adventures^ already communicated to a 
large circle of private friends, being sooner given to 
the English public. 

At length, fearing lest such an experience in the 
North Pacific should be wholly lost, Mr. Poole 
placed his Diary and other manuscripts in my hands, 
for publication. 

b 



X EDITORS PREFACE. 

It is from these papers, written by him with pains- 
taking exactness in the very midst of his adventurous 
career, that I have faithfully, and I trust agreeably, 
prepared the narrative which follows. 

J. W. L. 

London, November, 1871. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 
ACROSS LAKE ONTARIO — INTO THE " STATES" — PINE AND COAL 

LAND — THE " CITY OP ROME" — DOWN THE HUDSON RIVER — 

" PATRICK" ON HIS TRAVELS — THE " EMPIRE CITY " 1 

CHAPTER II. 

BOUND POR " ASPINWALL" — AMERICAN COASTING- — THE GULP 
STREAM — SAN SALVADOR — MARIGUANA — THE " QUEEN OF THE 
ANTILLES " — JAMAICA — THE " WINDWARD PASSAGE " — ACROSS 
THE CARIBBEAN SEA — PHOSPHORESCENT WATERS . . .13 

CHAPTER III. 

ASPINWALL OR COLON? — AT COLON— ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF 
PANAMA — FIRST VIEW OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN — LAUNCHED ON 
THE PACIFIC FOR SAN FRANCISCO — THE MEXICAN COAST, WEST- 
WARD — ACAPULCO — MANZANILLA BAY — CALIFORNIA ... 25 

CHAPTER VI. 

ANTECEDENTS OF CALIFORNIA — ORIGIN OF SAN FRANCISCO — INTO 
FRISCO BY THE "GOLDEN GATE"— STREET-RUFFIANISM — FIRE- 
BRIGADES IN PORTSMOUTH SQUARE — VIEW OP THE CITY FROM 
TELEGRAPH HILL — PUBLIC RESORTS — THE " CHINA TOWN " — 
FUTURE OF SAN FRANCISCO 40 



Xll CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER V. 



PAGE 



BOUND FOR VANCOUVER ISLAND — DISCOMFORT OF THE VOYAGE — FIRST 

SIGHT OF VANCOUVER — HARBOURS OF VANCOUVER — ESQUIMALT — 

# VICTORIA — THREE MONTHS IN THE CASCADE AND BLUE MOUNTAINS 

— COPPER ON QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS— FORMATION OF THE 

QUEEN CHARLOTTE MINING COMPANY— CHIEF KITGUEN, OR KLUE . 53 

. CHAPTER VI. 

BOUND FOR QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS — THE "OUTSIDE PASSAGE" — 
KITGUEN COAST OF VANCOUVER, WESTWARD — WHALES — SUN- 
DOWN, AND THE NORTH PACIFIC WATERS — INDIAN WOMEN — 

SPOONDRIFT QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS SIGHTED — CAPE ST. 

JAMES — WHALES AND PORPOISES — HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY . . 70 

CHAPTER VII. 

OFF SKINCUTTLE ISLAND — SITUATION OF THE ISLETS — FIRST LOOK- 
ROUND — FIRST RESIDENT ENGLISHMAN ON QUEEN CHARLOTTE 
ISLANDS — NOMENCLATURE OF THE GROUP — SITE TO ENCAMP — 
RATE OF WAGES TO WORKMEN — CARIBOO — BEARS AND EAGLES — 
MOUNTAIN GOATS 91 

CHAPTER VIII. 

SHORT EXCURSION — LONG EXCURSION — LASKEEK HARBOUR — PAINTED 
INDIANS — "PROTECTION NOTE" — CHIEF SKIDDAN HIS FRAME- 
HOUSE — CUM-SHE-WAS HARBOUR KLUE's HOUSE — SLEEPING 

UNDER SCALPS— SEA-BATH— THE ISLANDERS NO SWIMMERS— BACK 

TO SKINCUTTLE 103 

CHAPTER IX. 

COPPER — NEW SHAFT— ATTACK BY INDIANS — RUSHING IN AMONGST 
THEM — THE BONE OF CONTENTION — CHIEF SKID-A-GA-TEES — THE 
" KECKWALLY TYHEE " — SKID -A- GA- TEES DRAWS OFF — THE CUM- 
SHE-WAS — A CRISIS— REMOVAL TO BURNABY ISLAND — THE RAFT 118 

CHAPTEll X. 

MISS SKID-A-GA-TEES AND HER PAPA — QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDERS 
FAR IN ADVANCE OF MR. DARWIN — SKID-A-GA-TEES AGAIN — PRO- 
PITIATORY SACRIFICE TO HIM — ETERNAL FRIENDSHIP — WINTER IN 
CAMP — STORIES BY THE CAMP FIRESIDE — NORTH LATITUDE 
STORMS — TOWARDS THE INTERIOR — PANCAKES .... 134 



CONTENTS. Xlll 

CHAPTER XL 

PAGE 
PLOTTING INDIANS — THE GUNBOAT " HECATE " —SHELLING OPINIONS 

ON THE " SMOKE-SHIP" — KLTJE ON BOARD THE " HECATE" — THE 
"REBECCA HEAVES IN SIGHT — FIRING SKINCUTTLE — PROSPECT- 
ING — COPPER-MINE ON BURNABY ISLAND — BACK TO VICTORIA BY 
THE " OUTSIDE PASSAGE" — REPORT TO THE MINING COMPANY . 151 

CHAPTER XII. 

BOUND FOR QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS AGAIN — UP THE " INSIDE 
PASSAGE" IN THE " LEONIDE" — THE GULP OP GEORGIA — COAST 
ON EITHER SIDE — RUN AGROUND — THE NORTH AND SOUTH BEN- 
TIN CK ARMS — NEW ABERDEEN — BELLA- COOLA RIVER — TAYLOR'S 
RANCHE — GETTING OUT TO SEA — THE BELLA-BELLAS — ACROSS TO 
QUEEN CHARLOTTE 167 

CHAPTER XIII. 

WHERE ARE WE? — STORMS — WORKMEN, IN BRITISH COLUMBIA — 
POWERLESSNESS OF A LEADER BEYOND THE HAUNTS OF CIVILIZED 
LIFE — MUTINY TO WORK AGAIN — MINING OPERATIONS — CHRIST- 
MAS DAY AT THE LOG-HOUSE — KLTJE AND HIS CHIEFS — HOW TO 
CIVILIZE INDIANS ISO 

CHAPTER XIV. 

SEABOARD OF QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS — STORM-TOSSED SEAS — 
ABORTIVE BEAR-HUNT — INDIANS NEITHER BRAVE MEN NOR CRACK 
SHOTS — HUNTING BEARS — STORMY PETRELS — TIDE-POLE — AN 
AQUATIC SKEDADDLE — RIFLE-PRACTICE ON BURNABY ISLAND — 
TWO STUNNING STORMS 209 

CHAPTER XV. 

SUMMER-LIKE WEATHER — "TRIBUTE AND TUT-WORK" — RIVAL TRIBES 
— RUNNING SHORT OF PROVISIONS — THE " NANAIMO PACKET" 
ARRIVES — MISTAKE ABOUT STORES — KLUE AND HIS TRIBE HAVE A 
DEBAUCH — WICKEDNESS AND SHORTSIGHTEDNESS OF SUPPLYING 
THE INDIANS WITH WHISKY — REMEDY FOR THE EVIL — MINING 
PROGRESS — THE SK1D-A-GATES — MINERAL DEPOSITS OF QUEEN 
CHARLOTTE ISLANDS 226 



XIV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

PAGE 

DISORGANIZATION — IMPOSSIBILITY OF CONTROLLING THE MEN — A 
SALIENT EXAMPLE — GLARING THEFTS BY INDIANS — CONSULTATION 
WITH KLUE AND SKID-A-GA-TEES — DETERMINATION TO RETURN 
TO VICTORIA — DIFFICULTY OF THE VOYAGE — LAST CHANCE TO 
THE MEN— HARRIET HARBOUR .244 

CHAPTER XVII. 

PARLEY WITH THE MEN — FAREWELL TO THE BEAUTIFUL ISLES — 
KLUE'S GRAND CANOE — ACROSS TO THE MAINLAND — PARTING 
COMPANY — MISSING THE WAY— SIX DAYS IN THE RAIN — THE 
SKID-A-GATES WELCOMED BACK 2G5 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE RUPERT INDIANS — FRAY WITH THE ACOLTAS— OVER THE TIDAL 
WAVE — NANAIMO COAL-MINES — THE COWITCHENS — A GENERAL 
BATHE AND DRESS-UP — ARRIVAL AT VICTORIA .... 283 

CHAPTER XIX. 

QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS — CLIMATE — HARBOURS — INLAND WATERS 
— ROCKS — LAND — TREES — FRUITS— VEGETABLES — FISH— GAME — 
FUR — NATIVE TRIBES — THE MEN — THE WOMEN — COLOUR — FOOD — 
MEDICINE — GAMBLING — RELIGION — FEASTS — MUSIC — CAPABILI- 
TIES AND PROSPECTS OF THE ISLANDS 299 

CHAPTER XX. 

VIEW OF VICTORIA — HOMEWARD-BOUND— SAN FRANCISCO — COPPERO- 
POLIS — STOCKTON — THE "KING OF TREES 5 ' — MANZANILLA — 
ARISTOCRATIC THIEVES — MEXICAN LIFE — ACAPULCO — BLACK 
SWIMMING-BOYS — TEMPERATURE — SUNSETS — TAIL OF A HURRI- 
CANE — PANAMA CITY — BACK ACROSS THE ISTHMUS — FROM COLON 
TO NEW YORK — CANADIAN HEAD- QUARTERS — ON THE WAY TO 
ENGLAND 326 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



I. Harriet Harbour, Queen Charlotte Islands Frontispiece. 

II. Log-house, Burnaby Island Vignette. 

III. Map of Queen Charlotte Islands Page 95 

IY. An Indian Raid „ *2i / V>T 

V. Map of Queen Charlotte Copper-mines . . . „ 163 



VI. Oyer the Tidal Wave „ 291 



QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 



CHAPTER I. 

ACROSS LAKE ONTARIO — INTO THE " STATES" — PINE AND COAL LAND— 
THE " CITY OP ROME" — DOWN THE HUDSON RIVER — " PATRICK" ON 
HIS TRAVELS — THE "EMPIRE CITY." 

I had been engaged for some twenty months up and 
down Canada West, now the province of Ontario, m 
a successful course of " prospecting," and in other 
work bearing on mines, when I was induced to 
undertake a journey and voyage to the British posses- 
sions which lie along the western seaboard of the 
North American continent. Encouraging informa- 
tion having reached me, I wished to extend the 
sphere of my surveying and mining operations. 

It was in the month of April, 1862, that I set out 
upon my long and toilsome journey, my starting- 
point being Kingston, on the northern shore of Lake 
Ontario. 

In the summer and autumn it is customary to 
cross the Canadian lakes by steamboat. But, at that 

B 



2 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

season, the ice still remained sufficiently in possession 
to render travelling by ice-stage a necessity of the 
journey, despite the danger resulting from the thin- 
ness of the top-ice on the upper lakes in April. 

Shortly after midday of the 2nd, the guard or 
conductor cried — " All aboard for Cape Vincent!" 
with a sharp nasal twang, and, in a few minutes, the 
passengers had taken their seats inside the ice-stage, 
which was advertised to get to the American side of 
the lake in precise time to catch the " cars " due in 
New York the same evening. 

The ice-stage is a square-built conveyance, in form 
resembling a colossal packing-box, only that the sides 
are composed of wind and waterproof curtains, in- 
stead of wood-work. It slides over the ice upon 
wooden runners shod with steel. 

Our team consisted of two diminutive horses. 
These belonged to the Lower Canadian breed, and 
were wretched objects to look at; for all which, 
they really could do a deal of work, and tripped along 
before us with a lightsome and easy step. 

Already the snow, though three feet deep, was 
giving signs of approaching dissolution under solar 
influence, whilst the sun itself began to shine out 
brilliantly, and the April air to feel mild and pleasant, 



ACROSS LAKE ONTARIO. 6 

as if prognosticating a lovely springtide. Thereupon, 
our driver thought tit slightly to redeem his native 
surliness by cracking his whip in a cheery manner; 
and, as the Canadian shore receded, I tried to console 
myself for the many dear friends left behind by 
observing that the first prospects of my journey were 
at least not dispiriting. 

Ere long, however, this source of consolation 
proved to be somewhat premature. The driver was 
an American, and the conductor a Canadian; but 
both seemed to have sunk their nationalities in a 
conspiracy to make as much as possible out of their 
freight of trusting passengers. Owing to the top-ice 
frequently breaking, the jolting soon became so severe 
and wearing that it was a positive relief when the 
conductor " invited " the male portion of his charge 
to come and assist in pushing the stage back towards 
the smooth ice. Every now and then, too, we were 
enabled to heighten the pleasures of this employment 
by putting our feet right through to the lower ice, 
and having to hold on to the sides of the stage, till 
another safe footing could be obtained. 

At length, after fourteen miles of such forced 
labour, we touched the limits of the ice-region, and 
were thence rowed in more comfort over the last mile 

b2 



4 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

of our passage across to the American main- 
land — that is, if comfort can, by any stretch of 
fancy, be said to associate itself with boots full of 
water. 

Surely so valuable a co-operation might, at any 
rate, have met with its reward in an honest fulfilment 
of their advertised contract on the part of the ice-stage 
people. Our reward, as we neared the land, was to 
see the " cars " moving off without us, an hotel-keeper 
at Cape Vincent having bribed the stage-conductor 
to defer our arrival with a view to the hospitalities 
of his house, which he fondly trusted must needs 
follow. The American landlord and the Canadian 
conductor, however, had alike neglected to count the 
cost of failure. For we forthwith proceeded to pass 
our enforced stay in the one hotel of all which we 
deemed the most unlikely to have cultivated the art 
of bribery. Meantime, the superior claims of honesty 
over " smartness " were being practically asserted on 
the person of our late conductor. At home in 
England, an appeal would have lain to the owners of 
the public conveyance, or possibly to a court of law, 
for damages through delays on the road. But the 
transatlantic mode of redress is quite as instructive, 
less expensive, and much quicker. When it appeared 



INTO THE "STATES." 



certain that there was no going on that night, one of 
my fellow-passengers coolly walked up to the con- 
ductor, and, seizing him by the collar, in the twink- 
ling of an eye put his head " in chancery," and served 
him out in the presence of an admiring public. 

We started again next morning, under a genial 
sky, and were speedily flying, with all pressure on, 
behind two great " cow-catcher " railway engines of 
the country. 

The part of the United States through which the 
New York road from Cape Vincent runs is flattish 
and unsightly, till Albany and the Hudson River are 
reached. But the English traveller, with his inborn 
taste for observation, never lacks subjects of interest 
in America. 

Passing through the townlet of Brownville, I 
noticed some tall and handsome pine-trees. Now it 
is generally assumed in England that, where pine- 
trees are grown, the soil must of necessity be barren. 
From this opinion I altogether dissent, for I have 
seen the very best description of soil underlying 
large woods of pine, both in Canada and in Bedford- 
shire in England. This fact, it is true, does not tell 
so much on the North American continent, where 
generally the pine-tree roots run along the ground 



6 QUEEN CHAKLOTTE ISLANDS. 

within a few inches of its surface, as it does in 
England, where the roots frequently penetrate fifteen 
feet into the earth. None the less it seems to me 
to furnish ample evidence in disproof of the assump- 
tion that, because pines prevail in the northernmost 
districts of the States, the soil there must necessarily 
be unproductive. 

A singular property of British North American 
timber is its brittleness. Nothing is commoner in 
the Canadian bush than to see huge pieces of forest- 
wood blown down in all directions by squalls of wind. 
I well recollect one of those light squalls, so peculiar 
to Canada, overtaking me when riding once through 
the bush. In order to save my life I was obliged to 
urge on my horse at full speed : for I could hear and 
see the trees toppling over, here, there, and every- 
where around me. 

As one travels south, the timber becomes more 
consistent. But Nature, not being a respecter of 
national boundaries, carries its Canadian singularities 
a long way into the States. In the forests beyond 
Brownville, quantities of trees, evidently not cut, but 
snapped and broken off, lay strewn about, right and 
left. Many of these were beeches of a very fine 
growth, and such as had apparently intended to 



TREES, COAL, AND IRON. 7 

develop themselves into stately forest trees. Those 
of their companions which had survived supplied a 
refreshing change to the eye, after the everlasting 
pines of Canada. In America, when a beech plan- 
tation flourishes, it is universally received as the 
surest indication of a fertile subsoil. 

The country through which we passed was not so 
flat but that railway-cuttings were sometimes requi- 
site. I observed a stratum of blue or shale limestone 
in the cuttings — proof of the near neighbourhood of 
coal, although, from aught I could ascertain, none 
had so far been discovered. I cannot doubt, either, 
the existence of iron in that particular district. 
Several of the railway-stations, or a depots," as the 
natives queerly call them, were built of deep red- 
coloured brick, showing iron to form a constituent 
part of the clay soil, which abounds here. Up to 
the present year (1871), the source of wealth latent 
in that iron-ore remains entirely untouched, the 
double cause being, doubtless, want of capital and 
workmen. 

We now were steering eastward, and gradually 
getting into a milder climate. The snow had imper- 
ceptibly decreased from three feet to about four 
inches. But there was scarce anything to attract 



/ 



8 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

attention along the route, save the intense sameness 
arising from uncultivated lands, stunted woods, and 
miles upon miles of arid desolation. We would rush 
on for fifteen or twenty miles without more than an 
odd farmhouse or two varying the landscape, or 
without the trace of any living soul inhabiting the 
country, unless it could be discerned in the sign- 
boards which are stuck up where the farmers' roads 
intersect the railroad, and which warn wayfarers in 
the wilderness that, when they "hear the bell ring," 
they are to M look out for the locomotive." On every 
American engine there is a large bell, which the 
stoker takes care to ring whenever the "cars" come 
to a crossing or have to go through a town. If the 
engine should require wood or water, a loud steam- 
whistle is sounded, very unlike similar instruments 
in England, but which repeats the sounds w-o-o-edd, 
w-a-tt-a, as plainly as I here spell the words, and 
usually a mile before arriving at the station : so 
that the porters, or employes according to their 
Yankee designation, have good time to get ready. 

We hurried thus through not a few straggling 
villages, all aspirants to the status of " cities." But 
none were of the slightest importance, until at last 
we sighted the " City of Rome." 



THE " CITY OF ROME." 



In my capacity as a traveller from Europe, I natu- 
rally felt curious to see what sort of place new Rome 
could be. We just stopped to take water "on board." 
But, in that short time, I had time enough to note 
that the borrowed title was not such an absolute 
misnomer as I had expected. My American fellow- 
travellers said they were proud of this rising town, 
and with reason. When I saw " Rome " it had only 
seen ten years of life itself. Yet it already contained 
12,000 inhabitants, and a considerable number of 
substantial, nay even imposing, buildings. It made 
quite a grand appearance from the station. And 
who can tell whether it may not be destined, in ages 
yet to come, to wield some undreamt-of power in the 
West? Neither ancient nor modern Rome has 
its destinies limited to a day. 

Albany was the only town of consequence after- 
wards. Our "cars" did not enter it, as it lies on the 
opposite side of the Hudson River, which we had now 
reached. But, to judge by outside looks and by the 
manifest advantage of its position, it assuredly has a 
splendid future before it. Here we enjoyed the 
sensation, not known to travellers in Europe, of re- 
entering the haunts of civilization. A more delight- 
ful ride than that down the banks of the Hudson 



10 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

can hardly be desired. The scenery nowhere par- 
takes of grandeur. What are called the Highlands 
of the Hudson are mere hillocks compared with the 
real mountain-ranges of America. They do not 
even approach the Rhineland for precipitate height 
and picturesqueness. Still, there is a breadth com- 
bined with a winding beauty proper to the Hudson, 
which is not to be found united on the same scale, 
in any river that I know of, throughout the Euro- 
pean continent. 

The views as we neared New York differed con- 
siderably from those of the Upper Hudson. It is a 
thousand pities that a bridge has not been con- 
structed at some point about ten miles above the 
" Empire City." For there the far-famed Hudson 
opens up an expanse capable of holding vast fleets ; 
and it cannot be doubted that a suitable bridge 
would materially add both to the interests and the 
beauty of the river. 

An amusing incident happened " on board " the 
." cars," just previous to our arrival at New York. 

The conductor, in the performance of his duty as 
ticket-collector, having applied to a passenger fresh 
from the Emerald Isle to give up his ticket, the 
following conversation ensued : — 



"PATRICK" ON HIS TRAVELS. 11 

Conductor. " Your ticket, sir." 

Patrick. " Ah, dhin, what d'ye want it for?" 

Conductor. " I want to see it." 

Patrick. " Do ye, now? And, faith, and ye won't." 

Conductor. " In that case, you must pay your fare 
over again." 

Patrick. " Would ye raly like to see it, now ?" 

Conductor. " I must have either the ticket or the 
money." 

Patrick. " Bedad, and ye wont have the ticket — 
divil a bit of it." 

Here Patrick pays the fare. 

Conductor. u Why couldn't you have said at once, 
that you had no ticket?" 

Patrick (winking at the passengers). "Arrah, be 
aisy, conductor. Maybe, ye'd like to see it now f " 

Here the Emeralder pulls the ticket out of his 
stocking, and, showing it to the conductor, slips it 
quickly again into its hiding-place, with the self- 
satisfied air of a man who has got the best of the 
argument. 

It was a matter of lively speculation in the " cars" 
as to how long Patrick would be likely to reside in 
the great go-ahead country before he underwent the 
process of having his wits sharpened. 



12 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

Darkness had fully set in when we were deposited 
at the railway "depot," in Thirty- seventh Street, 
New York. 

As to give a just appreciation of the "Empire 
City " would take more materials than a transitory 
visit could have afforded me, I shall here simply pass 
through it, so to speak, on the way to my outward- 
bound vessel. 



13 



CHAPTER II. 

BOUND FOR " ASPINWALL" — AMERICAN COASTING—- THE GULP STREAM — SAN 
SALVADOR — MARIGTJANA — THE " QUEEN OP THE ANTILLES" — JAMAICA — 
THE "WINDWARD PASSAGE" — ACROSS THE CARIBBEAN SEA — PHOS- 
PHORESCENT WATERS. 

Just at that period hosts of gold-hunters were 
rushing out of the United States to Cariboo, British 
Columbia. I chanced into their very midst. 

It was not without considerable difficulty, there- 
fore, that I succeeded in obtaining a berth, by paying 
a high price for it, on board the Northern Light — a 
ship of fifteen hundred tons burden, bound from 
New York to Colon, or Aspinwall, as the Yankees 
affect to call it. 

Under British laws such a vessel would not have 
been allowed to carry more than eight hundred souls 
in all. I made one, however, of 1694 passengers, 
besides the crew and the usual quantum of " stow- 
aways." A more motley collection of human beings, 
and of absolute nondescripts, mortal eyes never 
beheld. 



14 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

That April afternoon was bright, with a warm 
southerly wind, as I got my traps finally conveyed 
to the vessel, and before dusk we had steamed along 
under the heights of Staten Island, through the 
Narrows, by Sandy Hook, and out into the broad 
Atlantic. The sun dipped down gloriously behind 
Long Island, and there seemed every prognostic of a 
pleasurable if not a rapid passage. 

Three o'clock the next morning discovered us off 
the Delaware coast, with the mainsail flapping in a 
gentle breeze. The beautiful sunset over-night had 
been followed by a moonlight equally beautiful, and 
so shiningly clear that I was enabled to read and 
note my diary while sitting on deck. 

We were soon, however, to experience the varieties 
of American coasting ; for, as the day dawned, large 
numbers of porpoises began to tumble about near the 
ship's sides, whilst flights of sea-gulls added a still 
surer presage of the coming storm. In a short time 
"white horses" were cresting the waves, the vessel took 
to pitching and rolling, the cordage rattled, the planks 
creaked, and we saw we were in for a regular gale. 
Suddenly the thermometer fell to near freezing-point. 
I lay in my berth, not sick — I wish I had been — but 
in that perfectly wretched state of existence which 



OFF CAPE HATTERAS. 15 

would as lief accept death as life, for some measure 
of release from the punishment. If there be any 
consolation in knowing that others are suffering 
contemporaneously with oneself, I had it in abun- 
dance. From my accommodation-berth, five feet long 
by one and a half wide, I could hear and feel that 
scores of the crowded passengers were as prone on 
their backs as I was, the men cursing and the women 
screaming, and both lamenting in piteous terms their 
folly in venturing upon the treacherous ocean. 

u Where are we?" I asked of the Captain, as I 
descried him passing my cabin door. 

" Off Cape Hatteras," was the curt reply. 

" Do you think there's any danger, Capt'n?" half- 
shrieked a middle-aged dame, in the next cabin to me. 

u Danger, mum ? Not the slightest. Just a cap- 
ful of wind." 

" That's the worst of them navy men," I heard the 
middle-aged dame's husband remark, as soon as our 
Captain had disappeared up the gangway. " When 
the waves is a-runnin' mountains, they says it's 
1 rayther fresh,' and when it's a-blowin' of great guns, 
they tells us it's ' jist smartish sea-going,' they does. 
Where's the comfort o' that ?" 

There seemed a good deal of truth in my next 



16 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

neighbour's homely criticism, supposing that the 
Captain's duty does include comforting his passengers. 
The practical difficulty would probably lie in the 
Steamship Company having to provide a duplicate of 
the Captain and his ship's officers. 

Within twenty-four hours the storm had abated, 
and determining now to try my " sea-legs," the first 
object I caught sight of on gaining the deck was 
an immense shoal of sea-weed, which, the boatswain 
informed me, was proof positive that we had entered 
the Gulf Stream. Here, too, I saw for the first time 
some of the cetacean mammals of the deep, together 
with flying fish in vast quantities, sporting a few 
feet off our ship's bows. 

On the fifth day, we sighted San Salvador, or Cat 
Island, the name by which the first land seen by 
Columbus (Oct. 8, 1492) has since been desecrated. 
Our course was S.S.W., with a strong easterly wind 
and a long ground-swell ; and, on the following morn- 
ing, we passed Mariguana Island, two miles on the 
starboard bow, the ship now steering W.S.W., in 
order to make what is known as the Windward Pas- 
sage, or the road leading from the Atlantic Ocean, 
between the islands of Cuba and San Domingo, into 
the Caribbean Sea. 



. MARIGUANA ISLANDS. 17 

The Island of Mariguana has a type of its own, 
and quite different characteristics from the West 
Indian islands in general. As a whole it is as flat as 
it is possible to imagine land to be. The northern 
parts, however, are covered with thick and rich- 
looking woods, whilst the southern, for many miles in- 
land, present the appearance of a wild, uninhabited 
common — very much, in fact, what the pristine navi- 
gators of these seas must have originally found it, 
The Bar, which lies out almost two miles seaward, 
offers an insuperable obstacle to Mariguana ever 
subserving the interests of commerce to any great 
extent. While hove-to and waiting our pilot, I had 
an opportunity of observing the bay. From the 
deck of our vessel it certainly did look very pretty, 
with its still, pale-green waters, contrasting with the 
deep-blue sea outside the Bar, and its pipeclay-coloured 
shore banks, which strike down abruptly and are 
topped with luxuriant verdure. Numerous flocks of 
sea-hens were enjoying themselves over the placid., 
surface of this ocean-lake, and demonstrating by their 
evident tameness that the Mariguanians are no 
sportsmen. The shores of all the island, I heard, 
have a deep deposit of white sand. The shore itself, 
not the sand, emits a sulphureous smell. Once or 

c , 



18 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

twice I thought a whiff of it reached out to the 
ship. Those who know the pleasures of volcanic 
eruptions will scarce be thankful if fate should cast 
them upon Mariguana. The place just looks as 
though, some day or other, it might go down bodily 
into the depths of the ocean. 

Far otherwise is the aspect of Cuba, which island 
was hailed, not long after, by our look-out man from 
the main-top. 

Columbus landed in Cuba, at the end of the same 
month that he took possession of San Salvador. It 
is 800 miles long, and 125 broad, and lies on the 
verge of the Bahamas coral-beds. The Spaniards have 
surnamed it " The Queen of the Antilles," and well 
does Cuba deserve the title. As we steamed fast 
towards it, full in view lay this richest jewel in the 
crown of Spain, its mountain-peaks towering majes- 
tically to the sky, and its rich vegetation stretching 
out of sight to the furthermost horizon. On the left 
were the lofty peaks of San Domingo, splendidly 
flanked on the left again by the island of Porto Eico, 
and on the right by that of Jamaica, as, before 
making the Windward Passage, we could dimly 
perceive them in the remote distance. In all nature 
it were hard to conceive a scene more redolent of 



THE TROPICAL FIRMAMENT. 19 

delights. The Antilles, looked at from without, 
well realize the mediaeval fable of the tl Enchanted 
Islands." 

What a strange and rapid vicissitude! Hardly 
five days ago we had been watching sportive whales 
and enduring a cruel cold, and now we were launched 
into a climate so fearfully hot that an awning of 
blanketing was obliged to be rigged on the hurricane- 
deck before any one could attempt to sit there. 
Fortunately the water had become smooth as a pond, 
so that our lately bedridden passengers could crawl 
up from their berths, and, packing themselves to- 
gether in a dense crowd, inhale a few breaths of 
fresh air, and feast their eyes on the magnificent 
diorama revolving before them. 

In this region, the voyager from the North gazes 
wonderstruck upon a firmament hitherto unknown 
to him. As night comes on, he cannot fail to remark 
that the moon gives out a radiance much stronger 
and more lucid than in higher latitudes. Even when 
there is " no moon," the planet Yenus and the Milky 
Way are so extraordinarily brilliant as, in a measure, 
to supply the want of the light which is reflected on 
our own planet through the medium of the moon. 
Then, the disclosure of entirely novel constellations, 



20 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

the grouping together of stars sublime in their mag- 
nitude, the nebulae scattered broadcast over the pro- 
digious space above, combine to invest with new-born 
interest the first view of a nocturnal sky in the 
tropics. The great Humboldt describes himself as 
having been deeply affected when he beheld it. 

As we pressed onward, past Jamaica, and across 
the Caribbean Sea, I noticed that the water was pecu- 
liarly phosphorescent at night. Before starting on 
my journey I had been prepared for this pheno- 
menon, and had heard scientific men attribute it to 
the animal life which, they said, causes it in the 
Pacific. A subterranean communication, it is asserted, 
exists under the Isthmus of Panama, between the 
Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans ; and, the Pacific 
being confidently believed to have a higher water- 
mark than the Atlantic, whatever phenomena are 
produced in the one will be reproduced in the other. 
1 too believe both in the subterranean passage and 
in the superior altitude of the Pacific ; but I explain 
the phosphoric appearances in either ocean very 
differently. A species of asphalte (chapote) is found 
to bubble up from the bottom of some fresh-water 
lakes in Mexico, and to wash back upon their 
borders. It has a pungent smell, similar to that 



SEA-PHOSPHORUS. 21 

of asphaltic bitumen, and possesses many of its 
qualities. Now it is a salient fact that a phos- 
phorous night-light, akin to that seen in parts of 
the Atlantic and .Pacific, also sparkles out of those 
Mexican lakes. But the ebullition, efHuvium, and 
phosphorus which belong to them have been 
geologically traced to a volcanic origin. Wherefore, 
assuming the axiom that like effects proceed from 
like causes, one surely cannot err in accounting for 
the phosphorescence of the Mexican Gulf and Carib- 
bean Sea on the hypothesis of semi-extinct volca- 
noes lying sunken underneath their waters. I am 
strengthened in this opinion by a test which I had 
a subsequent opportunity of applying to the falseness 
of an assumption commonly allowed in support of the 
contrary opinion. It is assumed that the phos- 
phorescent light confines itself to the water-surface. 
Having tenacious doubts on this point as well, I 
hired a canoe, months afterwards, when on the 
Pacific coast between Vancouver Island and Eussian 
America, and, taking a crew of Indians, I made them 
row me, one mild but very dark night, about half a 
mile out from the shore. Fastening the canoe to 
some kelp — kelp is often 80 or 90 feet long in the 
Pacific — I first got my Indians to splash or stir up 



22 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

the water with their broad paddles. The immediate 
result was that I could see plainly to read a news- 
paper. I then attached five fathoms of cord to a 
large piece of iron shaped like a spoon, and, on 
sinking the spoon, I saw with the utmost clearness 
the track of light it left as it went down the five 
fathoms. I had already convinced myself that sea- 
phosphorus is not the product of animal life : but 
now I returned to land satisfied that the deep sea — 
most probably to the very bottom — contains phos- 
phorus no less than the surface does, thus adding 
strong corroborative testimony to my theory of vol- 
canic agency being the cause of this salt-water phos- 
phorescence.* 

But, amid all these disquisitions on natural history 
and the science of the globe, how fared it on board 
the Northern Light, which introduced us to them ? 

If I say of our ship that she was seaworthy, I shall 
have praised her sufficiently. The Captain proved 
to be crassly ignorant, careless, and coarse. What 



* Trustworthy information has been received in England this year 
(1871) that the Government of the United States of North America are 
making preparations on a large scale, under the direction of their Superin- 
tendent of Coast Surveys, for a complete investigation of the deep-sea bottom 
of the Gulf Stream. 



CANADIANS AND AMERICANS. 23 

provisions we had were of the roughest kind, such as 
would hardly have been tolerated in the forecastle 
of a Newcastle coal-brig. If the vessel had been 
properly freighted, the accommodation would per- 
chance have sufficed; but, with a double complement 
of passengers, it was execrable. In England there 
is a preventive remedy against all these evils. In 
Yankeedom neither law nor moral sense provides the 
seafaring traveller with the means of redress, pro- 
spective or retrospective. 

A ship-load of that sort, coming straight from the 
United States, naturally furnished studies of character 
and habit in every variety. A few seemed to be 
travelling, like myself, in search of health and know- 
ledge, or in pursuit of some professional avocation. 
The great majority, however, braved the perils of the 
deep, and suffered the hardships of the passage, 
solely with the hope of amassing wealth in the gold- 
fields of California or British Columbia. At least four 
hundred of my shipmates were Canadians ; and very 
interesting it was to mark the difference between 
their behaviour and that of the American passengers. 
These appeared to be utterly bereft of the kindly 
feelings and social tendencies which help to make life 
endurable. There was hardly a day, or an hour in 



24 QUEEN CHAKLOTTE ISLANDS. 

the day, that they did not contrive to get up some 
dispute or other about the veriest trifles: whereas 
the Canadians made themselves agreeable through- 
out, retaining withal a respectful language and de- 
meanour towards every person on board, after the 
manner of men who know how to consider other 
people's rights, not less than their own. 

The 20th was Easter Sunday. 

When day broke, we perceived that we were 
rapidly approaching the far-famed Isthmus which 
slenderly links together the two continents of North 
and South America; and by eight o'clock that 
morning the Northern Light was safely moored along- 
side the jetty at Aspinwall, having made the passage 
from New York in eight days and 19| hours, ex- 
actly — that is, a distance of 2338 sea-miles, at the 
average speed of somewhat over eleven knots an 
hour. 



25 



CHAPTER III. 

ASPINWALL OR COLON ? — AT COLON — ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA — 
FIRST VIEW OE THE PACIFIC OCEAN — LAUNCHED ON THE PACIFIC FOR 
SAN FRANCISCO — THE MEXICAN COAST, WESTWARD — ACAPULCO — MANZA- 
NILLA BAT — CALIFORNIA. 

The appellation by which the world at large will 
ultimately recognise the northern port on the Isthmus 
of Panama is still a matter of uncertainty and con- 
tention. Speculators from the United States have 
dubbed it Aspinwall, after one Mr. W. H. Aspinwall, 
a New York merchant, who was the chief originator 
of the Panama railroad, and therefore, to some 
degree, of this seaport town. But the natives, and 
indeed all South Americans, insist on the place re- 
taining its ancient name of Colon, the Spanish form 
of Columbus. It must be confessed the natives have 
both taste and right on their side. That a locality 
should be handed down to posterity in connexion 
with the greatest maritime discoverer that ever lived 
is an honour which even a Yankee trader of the 



26 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

nineteenth century could scarcely hope to cap. As 
to right, what should we English think if a party of 
Frenchmen were to take possession of some harbour 
on our coasts, and pretend to substitute Lafitte or 
Clicquot for some time-honoured name prominent in 
our history? The trading interest of the North 
American States will probably succeed in imposing 
its nomenclature upon Panama. If right were to 
prevail, it would not be so. 

On board ship, we talked of our destination as 
Aspinwall. But, once landed, I feel I ought to refer 
to it as Colon. 

It is situated on the island of Manzanilla, in Limon 
or Navy Bay. There had been a village there 
originally, when, in 1850, a larger settlement was 
begun, for the purpose of surveying the Isthmus, 
with a view to a railway. Since then Colon has 
grown into a town of real importance, and at present 
contains some 200 houses, in which about 2000 in- 
habitants permanently reside. Its trade depends 
exclusively on the railroad, nearly the whole of the 
male population being either labourers or officials 
employed by the Company. A small fleet of steamers — 
engaged for the most part in the Chilian, Peruvian, 
and Californian trades — may generally be seen riding 



THE ISTHMIAN RAILROAD. 27 

at anchor in the bay. But the bay itself, though 
deep enough to float the largest vessels almost close 
up to the shore, lies so exposed that no ship is 
perfectly secure in it. The construction of a break- 
water has been long intended, and will no doubt 
eventually be accomplished. Until the promoters of 
the railroad arrived in Panama, the country, as far 
as the eye could reach from the bay, was one forest 
of mangrove, mahogany, and manzanilla — a medicinal 
plant from which the island derives its name. But 
now, the low level of the waste land, the marshy 
character of the uncovered ground, the decayed 
vegetation, the deposit of birds, the refuse of fish, 
the heat of the atmosphere, and the superabundant 
rainfall, have all united in creating a dangerous and 
clinging miasmatic fever, justly dreaded by un- 
acclimatized strangers. 

The line from Colon to Panama City cost, it is 
said, the life of one man for every foot of its 
construction. Two miles outside Colon is the 
burial-place of that forlorn-hope of railway navvies. 
They came in crowds, enticed by the wages (100 
dollars a month, that is, 20/.) ; but very few lived the 
month out. In short, the wide world does not con- 
tain a spot, Sierra Leone perhaps excepted, more 



28 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

undesirable as a residence than Colon and its 
neighbourhood. However, for those who are simply 
passing through, the malignant fevers have now 
almost ceased. And fortunate it is thus, because a 
voyage to the Pacific Ocean comprises nothing so 
interesting as the railway journey across the Isthmus 
of Panama. 

The housing at Colon may be dismissed with the 
remark that it consists principally of wood-built shan- 
ties, having zinc roofs and brick floors. They are 
hotels, warehouses, railway offices, or labourers' cots. 

That which struck me most, on landing, was the 
vitality of the vegetable and animal creation. 
Nature, as seen on the Isthmus, cannot be fitly 
portrayed. She appeared to have decked herself out 
with extravagant luxuriance, to bid us wayfarers 
from the bleak North a festive welcome. There 
is an inexpressible loveliness in the deep-green 
pendants of the palm and cocoa-nut trees, as the eye, 
unused to a southern clime, first lights upon them. 

Pine-apples sold at twopence each, and prodigies 
they were too. A plentiful supply of delicious dates, 
bananas, oranges, and all sorts of fruits and vegetables 
proper to the tropics, met one at every turn, and at 
fabulously low prices. 



THE INSECT FAUNA. 29 

Turkey-buzzards seemed to be hopping and flying 
about as common as crows in England; and the 
monkey-tribe had evidently become domesticated, for 
a representative monkey sat squatting at the entrance 
to each store, inn, or private house, just as cats and 
dogs do with us. 

Bat the truly surprising and amusing characteristic 
was the insect fauna kingdom. Not to mention Brob- 
dingnag beetles, taking their " constitutional " down 
the main street in broad day, I was shown a Norfolk- 
Howard, which had only been born three weeks 
before, and had yet attained to the dimensions of a 
young turtle. A little black boy was playing with 
it on the footpath, much in the same way that 
little white boys play with rabbits. He had got a 
string tied to the hind leg of his Norfolk -Howard, 
and I stood by while he urged on his ungainly 
playfellow with a stick. 

The distance from Colon to Panama City is forty- 
seven miles. In the afternoon of the day of our arrival 
we all left together by a tremendously long train. 

It was here, more than anywhere, that the marvel 
of the contrast between a temperate and a torrid 
zone really revealed itself. As our train rolled slowly 
along, we took in reaches of the surrounding country. 



30 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

No sign of habitation, or even of soil, was visible in 
either lowland or highland. Mountain rose up mag- 
nificently behind mountain, every one clothed to its 
summit with flowers, fruits, and foliaceous life. I 
saw clusters of dazzling white lilies, bowers of the 
broad-leafed plantain, thickets of tall geraniums, 
groves of palms and rival fern-trees, stacks of verdant 
sugar-canes, and, above them again, enormous trunks 
of the sycamore and the mango, interwoven with 
Virginian creepers and a still virgin brushwood. All 
these stretched out, like the marshalled forces of some 
giant army, for miles and miles athwart the land- 
scape. Gazing from my carriage-seat over this 
panorama of wondrous floriage and foliage, basking 
in a daily recurrent sun-sheen, I could not avoid the 
thought that possibly Panama-land had once been 
part of Eden. 

Nearer to Panama, the mountain-ranges decreasing 
in size, we caught a cursory view of the great 
Picacho, which rears its 7200 feet far off to the 
westward. Reaching almost up to Mount Picacho 
is the famous Sierra de Quarequa, It was from its 
crest that, on September the 29th, 1513, Nunez de 
Balboa sighted the Western Ocean. Irrespective of 
the glory attaching to such a discovery, the rapture 



THE BAY OF PANAMA. 31 

with which he and his followers, first of all 
Europeans, are said to have surveyed that glistening 
sea and the grove-covered islets studding it, can easily 
be credited by any one who has looked upon the 
Bay of Panama. There are few scenes, viewed at a 
distance, more suggestive of an earthly paradise, ac- 
cording to the old-fashioned notion of it. Happy 
were it if a closer inspection carried out the illusion. 

By the banks of a meandering stream, and in 
among beautiful groups of hillocks, green as only 
Panama grass can make them, our train kept saunter- 
ing on until, after a journey of about two hours and 
a half, it finally landed us safely at Panama City. 
The town occupies a promontory which juts out 
some good way into the sea. As a place of transit it 
has now become all-important. I would fain have 
stayed there awhile; but necessity compelled me to 
defer my examination of it till my return. 

A short half-hour more, and two tenders might 
have been seen steaming away to the ofiing, with the 
whole of us cargo of passengers from the Northern 
Light on board, and another hundred, who had come 
straight from England by the Southampton steamer, 
superadded. All told, we counted nearly eighteen 
hundred. The California!! packet, which was awaiting 



32 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

our arrival, had hardly room enough to accom- 
modate a third of that number comfortably. 

Her name was the Golden Age, an American-built 
four-decker, and, if she had not been so shockingly 
overcrowded, on the whole as goodly a ship, both 
inside and out, as one could wish to sail in. 

At ten o'clock the same evening she weighed 
anchor, and bore away for Point Mala, the south- 
western headland in the Bay of Panama, and thence, 
after two points further in a south-westerly course, 
due north-west for her voyage to San Francisco. 

That was on the Sunday. By noon on the follow- 
ing Tuesday we had made a run of 366 miles, having 
steamed between the mainland and Quibo Island, and 
hugged the shores of Costa Rica, till we could discern 
with our glasses the broad entrance to the river 
Estrella. 

The water of the ocean looked as smooth and 
limpid as though we were merely crossing a lakelet 
in Canada. And when we sat down to our meals in 
the large saloon, without any more disturbance from 
the elements than we should have had in an hotel on 
terra jirma, I could not help recalling the three 
months of uninterrupted calm weather experienced 
by Magelhaens, when he first doubled Cape Horn, 



A DELINQUENT PUNISHED. 33 

and which induced him to christen these seas the 
Pacific Ocean. 

At this stage of our Californian voyage, the food 
they gave us in the Golden Age was infinitely superior 
to that provided in the Northern Light. We had 
delicious coffee, fresh butter, juicy beef, and biscuits 
of the very best American flour. But what pleased 
me most was the dish of huge Californian potatoes 
which always garnished the dinner-table. In shape 
and measurement the smallest of these potatoes re- 
sembled a large-sized cocoa-nut ; and to get through 
half a one was quite as much as any of the diners 
could satisfactorily accomplish. 

By degrees we veered off from the coastway, and 
as the ocean maintained an unruffled surface, the 
monotony came to be temporarily relieved by an 
incident extremely characteristic of the lands of the 
Far West. 

A berth forward having been found less its blanket, 
the missing article was discovered, after a persistent 
search, in the possession of one of the steerage pas- 
sengers. Whereupon his messmates determined to 
clinch the matter by taking the law into their own 
hands. Some were for stringing him up summarily 
to the yard-arm, others proposed to crop his hair and 

D 



34 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

brand him P.P. (i.e. Provincial Penitentiary), whilst 
a third party thought a good ducking under the 
pump would be the right thing. But milder counsels 
at length prevailed. So, stripping the delinquent of 
his coat, they pinned a card behind him, with the 
word Thief in bold letters on it, and then marched 
him in that unenviable attire up and down the deck 
for a couple of hours. 

When we turned in that night, we were opposite 
Cape Blanco, keeping well in the open, and still in a 
dead calm. But before the next morning a strong 
land-breeze sprang up, and by ten o'clock, though 
we had run 339 miles, we found ourselves in the 
midst of a hurricane, the sea raging terrifically, our 
ship pitching and rolling in a fearful manner, and 
all hands lying out on the yards to double-reef the 
sails, or securing the mainmast with extra bracings 
to keep it from going by the board. 

This exceedingly unpacific state of the Pacific 
Ocean continued with little diversity for several days, 
during which I, and about a dozen other passengers, 
were the only persons amongst our eighteen hun- 
dred who could stand the deck. Of all the ills that 
flesh is heir to, none can compare with sea-sickness. 
But its horrors are enhanced tenfold when you feel 



THE MEXICAN COAST. 35 

that every dip of the ship into the deep, and every 
assault of the sickness itself, is simply part of the 
process by which you are being torn from your 
native land, and from the home where you have 
left your dearest friends. 

In this part of the Pacific it takes no time, so to 
speak, to get up a storm. The reaction, on the con- 
trary, is extraordinarily slow. Hence, though that 
gale duly subsided, we did not again enjoy the same 
smooth waters as at first. 

To enumerate all our points and distances would 
be tedious. Suffice then to say that we ploughed 
on our way bravely enough, oftener standing out 
to sea, yet occasionally running right under the 
coast, and twice putting into harbour. 

For beauty and sublimity nothing in Europe can 
equal the scenery on the western coast of Mexico. 
As seen from ship-board, it appeared to consist, for 
hundreds of miles, first, of countless hillocks, clothed 
with a verdure of rich and varied shades, and, further 
inland, of high mountain-ranges, which likewise 
looked one mass of green to their topmost crowns. 
The singular slant of the lower hill-country points, 
in the clearest way possible, to this portion of the 
globe having been transformed — presumably at some 

d 2 



36 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

remote period, history being silent about it — by a 
volcanic eruption which operated across no conside- 
rable width, but along a surprisingly disproportionate 
length of territory. The unquestionable fact of snch 
a convulsion seems all the more curious because, 
now and again, the higher mountains infringe upon 
the elongated continuity of the lower, pushing spurs 
down to the seaboard, and even precipitate promon- 
tories out into the sea. Viewed together, those 
Mexican coast-scenes make up a description of land- 
scape such as would repay many of our first-class 
artists the trouble of a voyage, provided always that 
they escaped the deadly coast-fever. However, with 
so much beneficence in nature, it was sad to think 
we were viewing it from the point where " dis- 
tance lends enchantment to the view." For not only 
do those grand mountain-ranges abound in gloomy 
caverns and repulsive ravines, filled with everything 
most horrifying in the brute creation; but, as we 
were trustworthily informed, the passes which lead 
over them are, and probably will long be, the abode 
of merciless banditti, who have subjected Western 
Mexico to a reign of terror, and have rendered 
existence there an insupportable burden. 

One morning we ran into the harbour of Aca- 



ACAPULCO. 37 

pulco, our object being to deliver a hundred tons of 
freight, and to ship as much more in export stores. 
This town, if viewed through European spectacles, is 
a conglomeration of poverty and untold misery. Yet 
the people had a satisfied look, reminding one forcibly, 
as they lounged in front of their houses or under th') 
trees on the plaza, of the lazzaroni vegetating on the 
Chiaja at Naples. If the rest of their provisions are 
as cheap as what they brought off to the Golden A ge, 
they must certainly have enough to eat, without any 
great labour. Oranges were selling at a halfpenny, 
bananas at a shilling for a bunch of fifty, cocoa-nuts 
at a penny, and six large cakes of molasses at a 
shilling. We had green parrots offered to us at two 
shillings each. The harbour is sufficiently deep to 
float large-sized men-of-war. We saw here the flag- 
ship of Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Maitland, and 
saluted it as we left. Three other English ships of 
war, and a French one, were also at Acapulco : an 
unpleasant station, I fancy. 

Another morning we again diverged from our 
course, to enter Manzanilla Bay, for the purpose of 
shipping a cargo of silver from the mines of Colima. 
There was the same familiar reach of country : but it 
impressed one as uncultivated, almost waste in fact, 



38 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

and only too fit a background to the tumble- down 
port of Salagna at the bottom of the bay. 

The heat of the sun had been dreadful. But now, 
each turn of our screw withdrawing us gradually 
from its worst effects, I soon began to recover. A 
tropical sun, while it lasts, is a wicked master. I can 
best describe the sensation it causes as resembling 
the pain that would be produced if any one were to 
seize a handful of your hair, and use his utmost 
efforts to pull it all out by the roots. European travel- 
lers to the South invariably fall into the error of 
wearing light and airy head-gear. But, in a hot 
climate, there is no defence like a thick, stout cap. 
The same for the feet. The action of a tropical sun 
is absolutely perpendicular, not leaving any room for 
shadows. Whenever it exerts its power, and nowhere 
more so than when bearing down upon the deck 
of a ship, thick soles to one's shoes are essential. 

After Manzanilla we kept to windward of the 
coast, never sighting land for a week, even once: 
till, on Sunday the 4th of May, we steered in again 
towards the shore, and before evening saw the tall, 
snow -clad mountains of Upper California, which 
overhang the lovely Bay of Monterey. 

At daybreak next day the firing of two small 



SAN FRANCISCO HARBOUR. 39 

guns from our bows imparted the welcome intelli- 
gence to the wayworn passengers that we had 
reached the entrance to the land-locked harbour of 
San Francisco, and that we should land at that city 
in time for breakfast. 

The last act of us English on board the Golden 
Age was to sign a protest to the Captain against the 
provisions we had been served with. Our two days' 
feasting had turned out " a mockery, a delusion, 
and a snare." During the rest of the voyage 
nothing could have been coarser, dirtier, or more 
wholly repellent than our saloon-table — not even that 
of the Northern Light But, of course, our protest 
went for waste paper. 

The passage from Panama to San Francisco 
occupied exactly thirteen days and eighteen hours, 
deducting twelve hours for delays at Acapulco and 
Manzanilla; thus making 3500 miles at the average 
rate of ten and three-quarter knots an hour. A fair 
speed, considering the gale. 



40 



CHAPTER IV. 

ANTECEDENTS OF CALIFORNIA — ORIGIN OF SAN FRANCISCO — INTO FRISCO BY 
THE " GOLDEN GATE " — STREET RUFFIANISM — FIRE-BRIGADES IN PORTS- 
MOUTH SQUARE — VIEW OF THE CITY FROM TELEGRAPH HILL — PUBLIC 
RESORTS — THE " CHINA TOWN " — FUTURE OF SAN FRANCISCO. 

That part of California which, in the form of a 
peninsula, runs down the western coast of North 
America, was originally discovered by the Spaniards ; 
but they did not at first colonize it, and they hardly 
named it. For quite a century afterwards it was 
known to Englishmen as New Albion, Sir Francis 
Drake having so named it when, in 1579, he touched 
there during one of his buccaneering expeditions. 
As soon, however, as the Spanish Government began 
to make settlements on the peninsula, they restored 
its old Indian name of California. 

The discovery of Upper California dates much 
later. Indeed, it was only in the year 1770 that the 
first ship sailed into the Bay of San Francisco. The 
pioneers of this great commercial mart of the nine- 



POSITION OF SAN FRANCISCO. 41 

teenth century were certain Franciscan friars, who, 
in 1776, founded a mission station on the spot, with 
a view to civilizing the savages of the interior. It 
is from them that the name of San Francisco has 
been derived. 

In a purely trade point of view the City of San 
Francisco is splendidly placed. It lies at the north- 
east corner of a strip of land which serves to divide 
and protect a deep and roomy bay from the Pacific 
Ocean. But as we rounded the headland and ap- 
proached the town, it was depressing and almost 
appalling to see the completeness of the desolation 
encircling it on every side. There are high hills, 
some twenty miles off; and between the hills and the 
town not ten arable acres exist, or could be made to 
exist, and no trees whatsoever. Since the time I am 
writing about, the Pacific Railroad has been brought 
to San Francisco. Even now, however, only one 
road leads out of the city, none other being likely to 
be wanted for many a long year to come : and the 
traveller by that road literally does not reach a single 
place of shelter from the burning rays of the sun, 
to say nothing of a pleasant landscape, until he has 
traversed the sandy plain for twelve miles. 

Up to 1834 the missionary friars had retained 



42 QUEEN CHAKLOTTE ISLANDS. 

complete control, secular as well as religious, of the 
settlement in this bay. In that year the Mexican 
Government secularized all the missions of California ; 
and thenceforward they rapidly decayed. Although 
the first houses of a new colony were erected in 1835, 
it advanced so slowly that a census taken in 1847 
only showed a population of 459 persons. But in 
1848 the first Californian gold was discovered, and 
two years afterwards there were more than 30,000 
people living in San Francisco, under the govern- 
ment of the United States, which had annexed the 
colony. No such rapidity of growth had ever been 
witnessed in any town in the world. In 1860 the 
population had increased to 56,805; and since then 
the increase has steadily gone on, at the rate of 
about 10,000 a year. 

I had been conning these facts over in my berth 
long before w T e made the Bay of San Francisco ; and 
they had quite prepared me to see in California 
order and disorder, grandeur and squalidness, and all 
the heterogeneous elements which constitute society 
in the abstract, jumbled up into a concrete of most 
extraordinary admixture. And I was by no means 
disappointed. 

Hardly had I arrived at my hotel when two 



STREET-RUFFIANISM. 43 

respectably- dressed men, engaged in hot dispute, 
rushed out of it. The case was the interminable 
one of North against South. Taking it for no more 
than an usual American " difficulty," I turned to 
enter the hotel ; but chancing to look again, I saw 
that the Northerner was about to add violence to his 
slanderous and abusive language. Already he had 
drawn a revolver from his pocket. The Southerner, 
however, was a match for him. Quick as an eagle, 
he drew his. own revolver, and shot the rowdy through 
the heart, in presence of all the people. Arrest, it is 
true, followed — or rather, the killer gave himself up ; 
but he was soon released, the Southerners being still 
predominant in California. This may have been an 
improvement on the state of affairs which existed in 
the earlier days of San Francisco, when crime, under 
the forms of incendiarism, robbery, and murder, 
reached such an alarming height that the towns- 
people became persuaded of the total inefficiency or 
corruption of their law-courts, and, forming a vigi- 
lance-committee, seized the prisoners in the gaols and 
hanged them in the open street ; but that homicide 
should continue to be committed, in broad day and 
in the public highway, with impunity, and even with 
approval, seemed to me to demonstrate beyond a 



44 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

doubt how little the San Franciscans could yet pre- 
tend to civilization. 

As a contrast to street-ruffianism we were regaled, 
the same evening, with a really striking sight in 
Portsmouth Square. It happened to be the anni- 
versary of the formation of the first fire-brigade, 
and the firemen celebrated their day by a pro- 
cession about the town. Incendiarism and the fragile 
build of many of the older houses in San Francisco, 
and indeed all over the United States, have com- 
bined to make the fire-brigade in that part of the 
globe an institution of far greater importance than 
in any other country. The immense number of 
engines did not surprise me, therefore. But their 
handsome brass and plated mountings, their tasty 
decoration with flags and flowers, the glittering uni- 
forms of the men, and the general arrangements of 
the procession, formed so odd a counterpart to the 
unpunished crime of the morning, that seeing such a 
display could alone have made me believe in what it 
suggested. So long as a people preserve to an ap- 
preciable degree the instinct of order, even though 
it show itself in nothing more important than a pro- 
cession, real prosperity may always be prognosticated 
for them. 



VIEW OF SAN FRANCISCO. 45 

Many of the passengers by the Golden Age, who 
had left England and America with the intention 
of emigrating to British Columbia, unexpectedly 
dropped into good situations at San Francisco, their 
wages averaging four to six dollars a day, besides 
board and lodging. I myself received two offers 
immediately on landing, one at 100 and the other at 
170 dollars a month, the latter equal to 510/. a year, 
and both places excellent in their way. But I de- 
clined them, in anticipation of a better opening 
further on. 

Having only a few days for San Francisco, I 
bethought me to make the most of my time by 
inspecting the city from every point of view, 
inside and out. In my opinion one should always 
begin with the outside of cities. It gives shape to 
preconceived ideas, and begets a plan of inspection 
better than much unguided wandering within. 

The finest view of San Francisco, or Frisco, as the 
citizens love to call their city, is obtainable from 
Telegraph Hill, an eminence in the north-eastern 
corner of it. From the top of this hill, in a north- 
westerly direction, is to be seen the famous Golden 
Gate, or sea-entrance to the Californian El Dorado, 
against the rock-bound portals of which the white 



46 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

waves are for ever dashing, and into which the ocean 
breeze sweeps daily with its chilling but purifying 
mists. Turning round to the south-east, I could 
discern, nearly forty miles away, the conical peak of 
Monte Diablo, 4000 feet high, and looking like some 
giant sentinel who for untold ages had stood guard over 
these waters, whilst their broad surface re-echoed no 
human sound save the paddle-splash of some Indian 
in his frail canoe. Due south, and as beneath my feet, 
lay the city, which it is easy to see will at no very 
distant date become the great capital of the United 
States in. the Pacific. 

The settled portion of the town appeared to cover 
an area of about ten miles. From my position on the 
hill I observed that what had been told me concerning 
the denseness of the buildings was not exaggerated. 
The original streets lie together in a sort of 
amphitheatre formed by three hills, Telegraph Hill 
being one. These streets are built in rectangular 
blocks, and with but a narrow roadway. Of late 
years they have been used solely as the business 
quarter. Beyond these the streets become much 
wider, with houses standing back in gardens at con- 
siderable intervals, or N in terraces having rows of 

trees in front. The quays make an admirable 

\ 

\ 



QUAYS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 47 

appearance. The position they occupy was originally 
a chaos of loose sands and mud-hills, furrowed by the 
refuse- water of centuries. In 1854, a series of 
gigantic operations, such as are only known in 
America, entirely reclaimed the chaos, so that, while 
the largest vessels can now ride in safety alongside 
the quays or piers, the heaviest waggons are able to 
convey with facility all kinds of merchandise down to 
the very ship-board. Excepting New York, there is 
no finer array of wharves on the American continent. 
The quays of San Francisco are, in point of openness 
and accessibility, even superior to those of New 
York. By-and-by, when both have consolidated 
their present woodwork into stone, they perhaps may 
begin to rival Liverpool, with its six miles of splendid 
masonry. The shipping in the bay was numerous, 
and included craft of every tonnage, from schooners 
of thirty tons to a fifty -gun English frigate, with its 
pennant streaming from the main, and "the flag 
that braved a thousand years " flying from the mizen- 
yard. By the aid of my glass I could make out a 
red-coated marine pacing the flush-deck aft. Amid 
so much to admire in the future capital of the West, 
it was grateful to reflect that, as yet, our Empire of 
the Seas showed no inclination to decay. 



48 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

On descending from my survey-post, I walked 
through twelve bran-new squares. Most of them 
were, so far, either covered with brushwood or com- 
pletely in the rough. Only one, Portsmouth Square, 
gave me the impression of being civilized. It is 
tastefully laid out in grass plots, marble fountains, 
and the beginnings of shady walks. The City Hall, 
an ugly gazabo of a building, flanks one side of it, 
and private houses run along the three other sides. 

The most remarkable public resort, after this square, 
is Montgomery Street. I will only say that it irre- 
sistibly reminded me of Broadway in New York, or 
rather of what Broadway probably looked like before 
its trees were removed. The housing in the squares 
and principal streets is of a yellowish sandstone, 
nearly identical in look and substance with the stone 
used for building purposes throughout our own 
Northamptonshire. But a very large number of the 
original houses still remain, some having brick 
frontages, the majority, however, being wooden con- 
structions, and, in not a few instances, the merest 
shed-work. Montgomery Street, and one or two 
others, are tolerably well paved; but the general 
system is plank- work, as in Canada and in so many 
cities of the United States ; only that at San Francisco 



SAN FRANCISCO CUSTOM-HOUSE. 49 

planks have been adopted for the roadway as well as 
the footpath. In the absence of granite or lime- 
stone, planking is doubtless the handiest method of 
road-making, particularly where virgin-forests are 
still within reach; but every one can see that in a 
city existing by traffic it is not a system to last long. 
If the San Franciscans should find it too expensive 
to imitate the New Yorkers, who imported Aberdeen 
granite to pave their Broadway, they will probably 
before many years substitute asphalte or some cognate 
composition for their present road-planking. Though 
as a matter of course tramways were in opera- 
tion, they seemed less in favour here than in any 
American city I had seen, whilst omnibuses and 
other hackney conveyances were proportionately 
more numerous. 

The finest building in the town is, without doubt, 
the Custom-house. It stands upon ground over 
which the waters of the bay formerly flowed. Its 
foundation is pile-work, the piles having been driven 
thirty feet down, through soft clay, in order to get 
at a hard and solid bottom. A substantial and really 
imposing edifice having been afterwards erected upon 
this, the establishment of the Custom-house is justly 
considered as a feat of engineering skill. The entire 

E 



50 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

structure, I was told, cost 800,000 dollars, or 
160,000/., which I can well believe. 

The " American " Theatre (so called in contra- 
distinction to the " Chinese " Theatre) is, externally, 
as handsome a public edifice as the United States 
can boast. The interior appeared to me almost an 
exact copy of the Music Hall in New York. I went 
one evening to see the performances. These were 
the Colleen Bawn and the Silent Woman. The 
coarse and undisguised immorality of the latter 
piece so utterly disgusted me that I left the theatre 
abruptly. The house was a full one, and quite half 
composed of respectably-dressed females ; but not 
another soul in it stirred. Where the passions are 
thus played with indiscriminately, it is no wonder 
they should often take the direction of murder, that 
the most hideous crimes should be easily condoned, 
and that the general tone of morality should have 
descended to the very depths, as I was given to 
understand is the sad case at San Francisco. 

No visitor to Frisco omits to see its " China-town." 
But there is really much less to see in it than one is 
led to expect. In 1866 it was calculated there were 
about 100,000 Chinese in all California, of whom 
some 10,000 lived at San Francisco. Their quarter 



SAN FRANCISCO " CHINA-TOWN.' , 51 

consists of from fifteen to twenty narrow streets, all 
of wood, and wallowing in a most iniquitous state 
of filth. It presented the usual Oriental features, 
with which every eye is familiar — open bazars, striped 
awnings, and an unassorted collection of nondescript 
goods. For all that, there was an evident spirit of 
thrift and activity amongst those Chinese emigrants, 
separating them widely from genuine Orientalism as 
we imagine it. In passing through the thronged 
streets I did not come upon one idle man. The 
inhabitants were described to me as sober, orderly, 
and peaceful, and as excelling all other classes in 
these respects. And yet they have invariably be- 
longed to the lowest stratum of society in their native 
country, whilst the very faces of the greater number, 
particularly of the women, betrayed an ingrained 
demoralization shocking to behold. As my infor- 
mation precisely coincided with what I saw, this 
is a proof that vice may permeate whole com- 
munities without any of the concomitant mani- 
festations of it to which we are accustomed in 
Europe. 

Thus I took a four days' glance at the city of 
San Francisco. 

My conception of it, on leaving, was that years will 

E 2 



52 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

elapse before its throes of premature civilization 
are altogether over, but that its present flourishing 
condition is none the less as certain a fact as its 
future mercantile mastery in the Pacific Ocean is 
an assured consequence. 



53 



CHAPTER V. 

BOUND FOR VANCOUVER ISLAND — DISCOMFORT OF THE VOYAGE — FIRST SIGHT 
OF VANCOUVER — HARBOURS OF VANCOUVER, — ESQUIMALT — VICTORIA — 
THREE MONTHS IN THE CASCADE AND BLUE MOUNTAINS — COPPER ON 
QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS — FORMATION OF THE QUEEN CHARLOTTE 
MINING COMPANY — CHIEF KITGUEN OR KLUE. 

It was a Thursday afternoon, May the 8th, when 
again I committed myself to the pathless ocean, 
this time in a small steam-vessel called the Pacific. 
About three hundred passengers would have made a 
respectable freight for her. Nobody seemed to know 
how many we had on board ; but I guessed twelve 
hundred to be near the mark. 

I shall give this part of my narrative in the words 
of my Diary : — 

"Friday, May 2 th. — Awoke this morning in a 
miserable state. Two English gentlemen and my- 
self had slept on deck all night, having contrived to 
rig some canvas to protect us from the driving rain. 
We might certainly have got wetter without it." 

"Saturday, May 10th. — Steamer making little 



54 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

progress. Nothing but rain, rain, rain. Wind very 
high, a real nor'-wester, with thick fogs, which render 
the voyage extremely dull and uninteresting, not to 
mention the awful misery of such a crowded and 
unprovided ship. An English friend of mine, who 
has also come out from Canada, begins to curse his 
fate in leaving that land of comfort for the prospect 
of gold in the mines of British Columbia. There are 
a good many more who share his opinion. For my 
part I feel perfectly sure that the hardships at the 
mines cannot equal those we are subject to on board 
this steamer. Horses, mules, sheep, pigs, oxen, hud- 
dled together. All hours of the day and night, 
hundreds of the passengers, in various stages of sea- 
sickness, may be seen clinging to the rigging, with the 
hope of imbibing a mouthful of air. Food is almost 
an illusion ; and oftentimes I would sooner go with- 
out a meal, such as it is, than risk losing some hole 
or corner where the crush is less, and where one has 
a better chance of escaping the hoofs of the Mexican 
mules — a kick from whom might soon enough send 
one 4 down among the dead men/ It is reported 
that several passengers were lost overboard, in both 
the Northern Light and the Golden Age, without 
being missed till the end of each voyage. I can well 



A MISERABLE VOYAGE. 55 

credit it: for it appears to me a hundred people 
might tumble over the sides during the night, and 
their surviving comrades not be any the wiser, or the 
Captain and crew be at the least pains to save the 
lost ones. Close astern of the figure-head is the place 
I usually aim at. The wind blows fiercely there. 
However, one does not encounter so much dirt 
forward as aft. It is consequently healthier, though, 
like every other available spot, choke-full of pas- 
sengers." 

"Sunday, May 11/A, 10 p.m. — A wet dreary 
night before us, and still nowhere to lay my head. 
This comes of travelling by Yankee ships. Thank 
heaven, I shall soon be again under the good Union 
Jack of Old England, where the rights of the hum- 
blest passengers are respected, to say nothing of those 
who pay large sums as their fare. Commend me to 
British vessels for sterling loyalty to whatever ar- 
rangements they make. ,, 

"Monday, May 12th. — Cramped and sore from 
having ventured to take a stretch on the wet deck 
when tired out with standing. Tried to dry and 
warm myself against the steamer's funnel. Strong 
easterly gale now blowing, heavy sea running, ship 
straining fearfully, as with double-reefed topsails she 



56 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS'. 

rises out of it, and lunges over to windward, and 
again pitches headlong into the ugly sea-trough. 

" 6 a.m. — Was quite half an hour in reaching the 
heel of the ship's bowsprit, the throng of people and 
cattle on deck being so great. Horizon clearing at 
last on the weather-bow. Gives us a sight of Cape 
Hancock, at the mouth of the Columbia river. This 
river divides the State of Oregon from that of 
Washington. There is a bar which lies about two 
miles westward of the mouth of the river, and pre- 
vents large vessels from entering. This is a fortunate 
circumstance for British Columbia, as it necessitates 
the United States' traders seeking a harbour within 
the limits of our territory. 

" 4 p.m. — Weather clear. A beautiful sky in the 
west promises a fine day for to-morrow. Eapidly 
nearing the Strait of San Juan de Fuca." 

To the best of my recollection, I had just finished 
making the last of the above entries in my Diary, 
and had fought a way to the forecastle, with the 
hope of catching the first glimpse of British soil, 
when one of my fellow-passengers, an Englishman 
I believe, suddenly cried "Vancouver Island!" 
Thrice welcome sound it was, indeed. For there, 
well in front of us, like some transformation scene 



STRAITS OF SAN JUAN DE FUCA. 57 

i 

emerging from the great repertory of nature, lay the 
craggy shore and high land of Vancouver. At first 
it appeared as the veriest outline in the dim distance. 
But the rough sea of the morning had been gradu- 
ally calming, and we made such rapid headway that 
within half an hour the coast began to stand out in 
bold form, and to reflect gloriously the rays of the 
declining sun. 

It seems necessary to journey long away from the 
sheltering segis of British institutions in order fully to 
know the joy of again hailing the land where the pri- 
vilege of being plundered and otherwise injured by one's 
neighbour, whenever he listeth, is at least limited. 

Soon we were alive from stem to stern : ducks and 
hens clucking, cattle lowing, sheep bleating, mules 
restive, and every human passenger intent on gather- 
ing his or her belongings together — all certain indica- 
tions that the end of our four days' misery was not 
far off. Before sunset, in fact, the Pacific steam- 
vessel had weathered Cape Flattery, and was going 
ahead in delightfully smooth water up the Strait of 
San Juan, which constitutes the line of demarcation 
between British and American territory. The pace 
was too rapid, however, to allow us to see, on either 
shore, more than a moving panorama of steep red- 



58 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

coloured cliffs, those on the American side running 
back into a range of high and rugged peaks, grandilo- 
quently styled the Olympian Kange by its owners. 

I may here say a word, parenthetically, about 
anchorage. It is a common mistake of writers who 
casually mention British Columbia to talk of Van- 
couver Island as possessing numerous safe and com- 
modious harbours. They confound a part with the 
whole. Many excellent harbours certainly do exist 
on the mainland, although but few of them are as 
yet in general use. Owing to the powerful tides and 
currents, and to the contrary winds so prevalent on 
the coast, those harbours are and must remain prac- 
tically closed, unless to steamers of high pressure. 
I knew a clipper-schooner which took two weeks to 
do the Inside Passage, a distance of only three hun- 
dred miles. Besides, I can speak from personal 
experience, having sailed several times up and down 
the Passage in sloops, as well as once in a schooner, 
and paddled it on another occasion in a canoe 
manned by Indians. And I testify that, notwith- 
standing the pleasant and generally safe character of 
the Passage, steam is what alone can ever turn the 
harbours of the mainland to practical account in the 
interests of commerce. 



HARBOURS OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. 59 

The first of the mainland harbours is that known as 
the North Bentinck Arm, which I shall afterwards 
notice. The second is New Westminster. Of both 
these it is especially true that they never can serve as 
anything more than ports of entry for steamers. At 
New Westminster, the current of the Fraser river is 
marvellously strong. No sailing-vessel has a chance 
against it. Even high-pressure steam-vessels find it an 
absolute impossibility to make the harbour without 
putting on an unlimited quantum of extra pounds to 
the inch. In Vancouver Island proper, however, there 
are three fine harbours. The first of these is Esqui- 
malt, situated three miles west from Victoria, the 
capital of British Columbia, and its seat of Govern- 
ment. The formation of Esquimalt harbour is an 
irregular circle, some two miles in width by three in 
length. It averages about seven fathoms of water. 
In facility of ingress and egress it surpasses all other 
ports in British Columbia. Excepting a few patches of 
rich loamy soil, the ground round about this harbour 
is very rocky ; but on that account perhaps it adapts 
itself all the more readily to the purpose of a landing- 
place for the heavy wares likely to be wanted in a 
prospective commercial country. Hence not less 
by reason of its extraordinarily good anchorage than 



60 QUEEN CHABLOTTE ISLANDS. 

because combining close proximity to the capital 
with the easiest access to the ocean-highway, Esqui- 
malt Harbour appears the great natural port of entry 
to Vancouver Island, and indeed, for many a year 
yet, to the whole of British Columbia. It lies exactly 
nine miles from the Race Rocks, in the Straits of San 
Juan de Fuca. On the western point at entrance, 
a white tower-lighthouse, called the Fisgard Light, 
from an English frigate of that name employed in 
this service on the coast, has been constructed. The 
lighthouse stands low, but is nevertheless so admi- 
rably placed as to be visible at every point of 
approach towards the harbour. Ships of any size 
can ride here at anchor, in all security. Esquimalt 
is chiefly used as a naval station, the Admiral's 
flag- ship being usually anchored inside : but, the 
large steamers belonging to the Pacific Steam 
Navigation Company, which ply between Vancouver 
Island and San Francisco, putting into Portland 
on the Columbia river, also use it as their ter- 
minus. 

Nootka Sound is the second of the Vancouver har- 
bours. The Admiralty reports well of it ; but when the 
place has been colonized and its harbour submitted 
to probation, it will be safer to criticize the official 



ESQUIMALT HARBOUR. 61 

report. The third is Victoria itself. When I last 
saw it there was a bar or spit running right across 
the entrance, a short way to the leeward of Ogden 
and Maclaughlin Points. The bar has since been 
thoroughly dredged; and now Victoria Harbour 
affords sufficient anchorage for a few larger vessels, 
and for a considerable number of smaller craft. 
Despite which a grave error is unanimously admitted 
to have been committed in choosing the site of 
Victoria for the capital. The reason alleged was 
the quantity of good land in its immediate vicinity. 
But port advantages rank among the primary requi- 
sites in a new country, and with such a port as 
Esquimalt close at hand, lying quite near enough 
to the good land, how its superior claims could have 
been overlooked appears inconceivable. The truth 
is, therefore, that, although British Columbia does 
possess many harbours, only three of them are likely 
to serve as commercial ports, one, however, Esqui- 
malt, having pre-eminent capabilities. 

Upon the lovely spring morning of May 13th, 
then, and at the beginning of an equally lovely 
summer, we all landed — English, Canadians, Ameri- 
cans, in a heap and a jumble — on the wharf in that 
harbour of Esquimalt. 



62 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

A sudden influx of 1400 people would have taxed 
the supplies in an ordinary civilized town. Conse- 
quently, the capital of British Columbia, which at 
that date counted only about 6000 fixed residents, 
with a floating population of miners and stray 
Indians, was hardly the place to find accommodation 
for an invading army like us. How the majority 
fared, I know not. But fortunate were those who 
had brought any kind of housing with them. As for 
me, I was able, in partnership with some of my 
English travelling- companions, to pitch a tent for the 
time, on a slight eminence off the Squymalt road 
(the Yankee corruption of the euphonistic Esquimalt), 
commanding a view of Victoria. Fancy arriving in 
England after a four days' journey from Southern 
Europe, and being condemned to go a-gipsying on 
Hampstead Heath — glad too of the chance. I do 
aver we felt uncommonly Bohemian. We formed a 
sort of camp — at least those did who had tentage. 
Numbers, however, found themselves completely with- 
out shelter, and sad it was to see them wandering for 
many days, in couples, or by families, about the crude 
Victorian streets. Eventually, though very gradually, 
they all disappeared, being absorbed, in virtue of 
some occult process of nature, into the body colonial, 



THE BLUE AND CASCADE MOUNTAINS. 63 

mostly over to the mainland, which subtends the 
Island of Vancouver. 

I shall here skip some three months, or account for 
them in general only. 

My professional acquirements enabled me, sooner 
than many of my fellow- emigrants, to obtain an 
engagement. What an emigrant looks to, on land- 
ing, is to be employed in any manner. For although 
he may have to endure great hardship from the 
unwonted nature of the employment offered him, he 
knows that if he will but keep steadily at it he is 
certain to get on. Sometimes, no doubt, he acts with 
unwise precipitancy ; but the stimulus to active 
exertion is none the less, even after a disappointment 
at starting. It is so disposed, perhaps providentially. 
A feeling of this kind led me, in the first instance, to 
join a prospecting enterprise on the mainland. My 
Canadian experience had inured me to venturesome 
operations in the open air, from which I rashly 
inferred that I could stand their equivalent in British 
Columbia. But for all my eagerness to earn a status in 
the colony, could I have foreseen one tithe of the pri- 
vations before me I should have shrunk back appalled. 
Being wishful to take my reader on to Queen 
Charlotte Islands, which is the chief object of 



64 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

this narrative, I shall sum up what I underwent 
during the three months after my arrival by saying 
that the exploring expedition I joined included in its 
operations forcing our way across the Blue and Cas- 
cade Mountains, here climbing up half-perpendicular 
hill-sides, there springing from rock to rock, then 
down again by precipitous tracks, where one false 
step would have flung me into an unfathomable 
abyss, at one time up to the middle in soft alkali 
mud, at another breasting swift mountain-torrents, 
scrambling over roots and fallen trees, or battling 
with the densest brushwood. More than once it 
occurred to our party to find ourselves benighted 
amidst a superabundant vegetation, reminding me of 
Panama, with a temperature of 98° in the shade, and 
with myriads of the customary hot climate accessories 
in the shape of mosquitoes, sand-flies, black-flies, and 
a species of ant as large as the common English fly, 
besetting us in every direction, each little fellow 
having obviously embarked his energies in a concen- 
trated effort to excel our other persecutors in the 
quantity of blood he could extract from us victims ; 
whereas the next day about noon we might have 
been seen, had anybody watched our progress, in the 
midst of the snow, shivering on a mountain-top, 



LIKELIHOOD OF COPPER. 65 

16,000 feet above the sea-level, and therefore higher 
than Mont Blanc or the Jungfrau; but again, the 
very same evening perhaps, down once more into the 
hot plain or valley. If to such reckless pulls on one's 
constitution it be added that for five or six days we 
were in hourly dread of attack from hostile savages 
whose country we were prospecting, that our food 
consisted principally of the bark of trees, and that, 
though we left a sorrowful trail of blood behind us, 
nay, the body even of one of our companions, we had 
no trail to guide our path save our pocket-compasses, 
some idea may be formed of the pluck which was 
necessary to carry us through with the expedition, 
and some palliation be accepted for the hopeless 
failure in which it resulted. Never did means prove 
more inadequate to the end. But it served to start 
me in British Columbia. It was under these circum- 
stances that for the second time I arrived at Victoria, 
on this occasion without a penny in my pocket, and 
without a friend or relative nearer than 6000 miles. 
However, after a fortnight's rest and good living I 
began to recover the use of my feet, and to feel that 
my constitution was not altogether destroyed. As 
soon as I had strength sufficient to get about, I 
stated publicly my conviction that, from observations 

F 



6Q QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

and calculations I had made on the mainland, almost 
opposite Queen Charlotte Islands, there was copper 
to be found in the group of islands which lie out 
from the coast to the north of Vancouver. This 
opinion happened to receive a singular confirmation 
from the fact of a native of those islands having, some 
months previous, brought down a sample of copper- 
ore to Victoria under the impression that it was 
gold. 

In a marvellously short time the nucleus of a 
Company was got together and entitled the Queen 
Charlotte Mining Company, which so inspired me 
with hope and confidence that I offered to go up and 
sink the requisite shafts. As mining engineers are 
not a commodity which is landed every day in 
British Columbia, the directors were only too happy 
to accept my offer. 

Before closing the bargain I thought an interview 
with the Governor, Sir James Douglas, would be both 
proper and profitable. The long service of Sir James 
Douglas to the Hudson's Bay Company, his intimate 
acquaintance with the various tribes of natives, and 
his knowledge of the requirements for developing the 
resources of this the most important colony of Eng- 
land in the Pacific, rendered him at that epoch emi- 



GOVERNOR DOUGLAS. 67 

nently qualified to fulfil the duties of Governor of 
our North- West American possessions. I have no 
object in bepraising him other than a desire to re- 
cord my humble sense of his eminent merits. But 
such I know to be the verdict of all unbiassed men 
who had the advantage of living under his wise and 
able administration. In my case he regretted that 
he could not take upon himself the responsibility 
of giving me the more substantial protection of a 
gunboat and a detachment of marines. The hostility 
attributed to the natives of Queen Charlotte Islands 
the Governor declared to be well founded. The risk 
and expense would be too great, he said, for the 
Government to incur in a private undertaking ; but 
he ended some valuable advice by recommending me 
strongly to supply myself with plenty of arms and 
ammunition. It did not look very encouraging. I 
was bent upon making the venture, however. As it 
chanced, Kitguen, who claimed the head chieftainship 
of the islands, was then at Victoria ; so I took him 
before the Governor, to whom he promised that his 
tribe should not molest us, and that he would bring 
his influence or power to bear in our behalf should 
any other tribe seem disposed to contest our landing 
or interfere with our explorations. In fact, we took 

f 2 



68 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLA1TOS. 

the bull by the horns, and with capital effect. The 
Governor spoke to Kitguen in his own language, 
which he interpreted as an honour and deference 
intended to be shown to his chiefdom. Of this impres- 
sion he gave unmistakeable evidence when he after- 
wards returned to his tribe, they and the other 
tribes consequently regarding him in the light of a 
chief who had attained to an influential position with 
the chief of the white men. 

Fully alive, therefore, to the daring character of 
the attempt, I took up my appointment from the 
Queen Charlotte Mining Company. 

In another day or two we had chartered the Rebecca 
schooner of twenty tons, and proceeded forthwith 
to load her with provisions and implements necessary 
for rough mine work. Kitguen being anxious to go 
back to his island-home, I gave him a free passage, 
and, having likewise shipped some men as helpers in 
my operations, I was to be seen, one summer eve, 
standing on the beach of Victoria, surrounded by 
newspaper reporters and a number of the leading 
men of the town, who had come down to wish me 
success and a pleasant voyage. 

I have always considered it a real pity that 
Vancouver possessed, in those days, but a small 



ENTERPRISE AT VICTORIA. 69 

number of men of spirit. Had there been as many 
in it then as there were subsequently, I have no 
hesitation in saying that British Columbia would 
ere this have got far ahead of any State in North 
America, not excepting California. That is the 
opinion of everybody that knew the colony when the 
mercantile and emigration world was giving its 
splendid chances the go-by. 

" There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune : 
Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
Is bound in shallows and in miseries." 

As of men so of countries ; though I heartily hope 
that many more tides in the affairs of British 
Columbia will lead on to fortune. 

Backed only by a handful of individuals, like all 
originators in Vancouver at the time, I had simply to 
do my best to make the concern worthy of the enter- 
prise and energy of those who had embarked in it. 



70 



CHAPTER VI. 

BOUND TOR QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS — THE "OUTSIDE PASSAGE" — 
EJTGUEN — COAST OP VANCOUVER WESTWARD — WHALES — SUNDOWN, AND 
THE NORTH PACIFIC WATERS — INDIAN WOMEN — SPOONDRIPT — QUEEN 
CHAELOTTE ISLANDS SIGHTED — CAPE ST. JAMES — WHALES AND POR- 
POISES — Hudson's bay company. 

By sundown on the evening of August the 4th I 
had got everything on board. Captain Macalmond 
having then cast away his shore lines, we hauled off 
from the jetty, and with the aid of the ebbing tide 
the pretty little clipper-schooner Rebecca glided 
gently out of Victoria harbour. 

Her ultimate destination was the Stickeen River 
gold-mines; but we had partially chartered her to 
deliver myself, my men, and my freight, on her way 
up there, on Queen Charlotte Islands. 

Opposite Ogden Point we anchored for an hour, 
to trim ship and await the captain's wife. 

At 10 p.m. we cleared the harbour, and proceeded 
to take the Inside Passage towards the Gulf of 
Georgia. The weather being calm and foggy, how- 



INSIDE OR OUTSIDE PASSAGE. 71 

ever, and as from my recent experience I already 
knew the difficulties of that route, I strongly advised 
the Captain to make for the Outside Passage — a plan 
he at once agreed to adopt, greatly to my satisfaction. 

There has always been much dispute as to which 
of the two routes is the safest and best to the Head 
of Vancouver. As aforesaid, I have gone the Inside 
Passage more than once, and I shall again refer to 
my knowledge of it; but it may also help to show 
the relative advantages of those rival highways if I 
here quote from my Diary the precise time it took to 
accomplish an average passage Outside, together 
with some of the circumstances attending it. 

After our vessel's course had been reversed and 
the Captain had headed her W.S.W., we turned into 
our respective bunks to sleep off the excitement of 
departure. 

" August 5th. — Up at sunrise this morning, find- 
ing sleep impossible, what with the schooner's 
tossing in the ground-swell of the strait, and the 
closeness of the atmosphere below. Only too glad to 
inhale the sea-breeze, although the morning smacks 
damp and misty, as I hear is frequently the case 
beneath the shadow of Mount Baker. This moun- 
tain forms a useful landmark for mariners on the 



72 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

coast. It is the highest of the Olympian range, the 
frowning precipices of which converge into its 
westernmost point, in the natural boundary between 
British Columbia and the United States. The 
scenery all around, when illumined by sunlight, 
must be grand in the extreme. As I now see it over 
the top of a sea-fog, it looks rude, desolate, and un- 
inviting. 

" Good English breakfast, thanks to the British 
Constitution. But the passengers leave the Captain 
and me to enjoy it, the landsman's inveterate foe — 
sea-sickness — having taken full possession of them. 
As for me, I begin to consider myself an exempt. 
In fact I am never blessed with so glorious an appe- 
tite as when ploughing the deep or otherwise under- 
going invigoration from the sea-air. 

" In this country the winds are perceptibly affected 
by the sun. At midnight last night it blew quite a 
small gale : but as soon as the sun appeared on the 
eastern horizon the wind suddenly dropped, and the 
sea became as calm as a mill-pond. Precisely the 
opposite would have taken place had it been 
calm in the night. "We should now be in a gale. 
These sudden changes with the sun are the rule out 
here. 



KITGUEN. 73 

u The live-stock on board the Rebecca consists of 
the Captain and wife, the mate, steward, one A.B. 
seaman, myself, and eight mining- workmen, with two 
Hydah chiefs and four of their women ; all of us, 
Captain and wife excepted, being stowed away in the 
hold amongst two tiers of bunks, kept separate from 
the general cargo only by a slight boarding. The 
overpowering atmosphere of this hold, which rancid 
oil, burning grease, and the fishy stench characteristic 
of Indians renders still more oppressive, induces me 
to court the deck as long as possible. 

"I have just been joined here by Kitguen, who, 
albeit the very pink of uncleanness, proves to be an 
intelligent biped and a sociable Indian. If his chief- 
tainship would but wash himself once a week and cover 
his skeleton shanks with unmentionables, he would 
make a rather respectable-looking member of society. 
I did give him a pair of pants, and he wore them 
while at Victoria; but no sooner had we distanced 
the capital than he quickly threw them off, and on 
my inquiring the cause he replied, " Wake closh^ which 
being interpreted means " No good?" 1 He does not 
appear to possess much physical strength, neither is 
he handsome. His cheeks are sunken, and his cheek- 
bones are more prominent than a Celt's; he has a 



74 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

dull and inexpressive eye ; his hair, thick as brush- 
wood, reeks with fish-oil and tumbles down the back 
of his neck; but his face is absolutely beardless. 
Smooth faces, it seems, are fashionable with his tribe, 
every man of whom systematically eradicates the 
hairs of the face, and carries a tweezer about for 
that express purpose. It was some time before I 
knew the cause of Kitguen's evident partiality to- 
wards me. At last I discovered that it arose from 
my being 4 cleaner than most whites he had seen ' — 
in other words, because I did not wear a beard. The 
passion for wearing beards is, I need scarce say, as 
prevalent amongst our countrymen in British 
Columbia as in England. Yet I noticed at Victoria 
that many eschewed the custom altogether, and not 
without reason, I think. Beardlessness has two un- 
doubted advantages in this colony: first, it disposes 
the natives to make friends with you ; secondly, and 
by no means least in importance, it leaves a more open 
field for the slaughter of the mosquitoes when they 
attack you in the visage — indeed, they are hardly 
get-at-able when they fill your beard. I judge Kit- 
guen to be about thirty-five years of age, although 
the habit of painting from childhood upwards, and 
the life of frightful exposure led by the Indians, 



OUT INTO THE PACIFIC. 75 

have combined to give him the appearance of fully 
fifty years. He stoops somewhat, and is rather bow- 
legged — defects common to the seaboard tribes of 
Indians, and doubtless arising from overmuch sitting, 
tailor-fashion, in their cranky canoes. It rather sur- 
prises me to see no tattooing on any part of him ; 
but he has a very amusing ring of silver through his 
nose, and in each of his big splay ears are several 
ornamental holes, large enough to let my little finger 
through up to the first joint.' 7 

Kitguen was a man, take him for all in all, whom I 
found to be a very fair specimen of a Queen Charlotte 
Indian, which is the reason why I describe him here 
at more length perhaps than might otherwise seem 
justifiable. We became great friends. I tried to 
teach him a little English, which he reciprocated by 
initiating me into the mysteries of the Hydah tongue, 
as well as by many friendly services. The other chief 
belonged to the Skiddan tribe. He was of a more 
quiet and unambitious disposition. 

"August hth, 6 p.m. — We have just passed out of 
the Straits of San Juan de Fuca, and are entering 
the open Pacific, the evening lowering calmly, clearly, 
and delightfully. At this moment we have crossed 
the bows of a large barque, within sixty yards of 



76 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

her. She is called the Gold-Hunter, and is bound 
for San Francisco, one Hoey commanding her. Cap- 
tain Macalmond, who is both owner and commander 
of the 'saucy' Rebecca, as the British Columbians 
have surnamed our schooner, has good reason to 
feel proud of his little vessel, which he declares out- 
sails all other ships, of whatever tonnage, on the 
coast. 

" The schooner's course is right under Vancouver 
Island, of which we have a close yet comprehensive 
view from where I am writing this on the deck. 
At the present season of the year the island does 
not appear to its best advantage, the ground being 
evidently parched, and the pastures scorched to 
nothing, from sheer want of rain. But a little later 
the Autumn will set in, and then we shall have what 
is known in North America as the Indian summer. 
Still, the foliage of the forest-trees and shrubs presents 
a wondrous aspect to any eye unaccustomed to it. 
In that, British Columbia only excels in degree what 
may be met with in kind all through Canada, and 
indeed all over the northernmost parts of the North 
American continent. I have seen leaves of every 
imaginable tint draping the shore of the great St. 
Lawrence, the golden hue of the water, as the sun rises 



A RETROSPECT ON CANADA. 77 

or sets, vastly augmenting the splendour of the effect. 
Occasionally too the leaves of one tree would display 
a mass of the brightest scarlet, whilst its next neigh- 
bour would soften off into lake-colour, or show an 
infinitude of variegated tinges on its different 
branches. When this happens it is a sure sign 
th at a severe winter is approaching : but the beau- 
teousness of the present often lures one to forget 
the harshness of the future. The thought of 
the lovely forest -life to be seen at every step in 
Canada, during quite seven months of the year, never 
recurs to me but I think likewise of the silly igno- 
rance exhibited by the French " statesman," who, 
when his countrymen were obliged to yield up Canada 
to us, described it as merely " a few acres of snow." 
As I gaze across to Vancouver, it appears to surpass 
even my old Canadian visions. The background is 
high, and looks intensely rocky. We are now sailing 
so close in-shore, however, that with my glass I can 
make out perfectly well a rich alluvial soil of a deep 
black colour, filling up the long valleys between, and 
seeming only to await the ploughshare of the hus- 
bandman in order to make it abundantly productive. 
The tree-leafage runs down in luxuriance to the very 
water's edge, presenting a marvellous variety, from 



78 QUEEN CHAKLOTTE ISLANDS. 

dyes of malachite green or topaz yellow to the most 
delicate shades of pink." 

" August 7th. — It was past eleven o'clock last 
night when we turned into our bunks, tired at last 
with gazing, by the silvery moonlight, upon the 
wonders of creation. 

" In the Rebecca we are not restricted, to time, as 
on board regular packet-ships. We have no 'eight 
bells, and all lights out.' The Captain does all he 
can to see to our comfort, and leaves us to our own 
devices. But, on the other hand, we are a contented 
lot of passengers. All of us lend a hand at the helm, 
or make and shorten sail, as each man knows how, 
and just as though one were in a private yacht. 

" This morning sailing along still closer, if pos- 
sible, under the land. 

" The prospect, lit up by the blaze of the ascend- 
ing sun, strikes me as truly magnificent. 

" And yet this island has remained in obscurity 
for upwards of half a century since its full discovery 
by Captain Vancouver of the English Eoyal Navy. 
It is 270 miles in length, with an average breadth 
of fifty miles, and a superficies of 14,000 square 
miles — or in other words, it measures about a quarter 
the area of England and Wales. In my opinion the 



the Hudson's bay company. 79 

fault of the emigrating world's having been so long 
kept in ignorance of this grand outlet for our surplus 
population lies mainly at the door of the Hudson's 
Bay Company, to whose custody our Government 
foolishly relegated it, after England and Spain had 
settled their dispute about its possession. That 
Company, now happily defunct, found the trade with 
the Indian tribes too lucrative not to make it a 
stringent interest to hide the natural resources 
of Vancouver Island from the c outer barbarians.' 
No doubt some few strangers did contrive to exist 
there, previous to 1859, when the Company's charter 
expired: but the monopoly of the latter was too 
great, and every branch of colonial trade too much 
aifected by it, to leave the slightest chance of success 
to the individual speculator. Dating from 1859, 
however, the colony has experienced a slow but 
steady and increasing prosperity. 

"4 p.m. — Vast shoals of whales were playing 
near us in the forenoon, one as near as forty yards 
across our bows, his length some seventy-five feet, 
measured by the eye. 

"This afternoon we have had another kind of 
visitation, in the shape of four canoes crammed with 
Indians. The majority of these were females, but 



80 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

painted so black as completely to hide the expression 
of their features. The men, who sported a costume 
the reverse of l full dress,' had unprepossessing and 
stupid countenances. They wanted to sell us fish ; but 
we had got provisions enough on board without it. 

" 9 p.m. — When the sun went down in the 
west this evening, there was the slight movement on 
the water so often seen in these parts. 

" I have just come from viewing the island to great 
advantage. The declining sun added immensely to 
its otherwise extraordinary beauty. But the change 
is amazingly rapid. A variety of the liveliest colours 
tinge the tops of the gigantic pines and cedars with 
which Vancouver abounds, and which are divided 
from the golden waters by a line of sombre-hued and 
jagged rocks thrown up into all manner of shapes. 
While the eye is endeavouring to take in the 
splendour of this feat of nature, from the far south- 
east to the far north-west, suddenly down dips the sun 
into the ocean's bosom, and the gorgeous landscape is 
almost instantaneously enveloped in midnight gloom. 

" I write now by a lamp. The cause of this sudden 
darkness is the absence of all twilight."* 



* The complete want of twilight on the North Pacific coast is remarkable. 
Science explains why day immediately succeeds to night in the Tropics ; 



OFF BERKLEY SOUND. 81 

" August 8th. — We are off Berkley Sound this 
morning with a strong north-easterly head- wind. It 
smacks of a land-breeze. So we alter our course a 
few points, which will take us out of sight of land 
until we sight the island we are sailing for. 

" I am almost the only passenger not sea-sick 
again. It is rather singular that the Indians should 
be troubled with sea-sickness, since they are so con- 
tinually on the water, and in much rougher weather 
than we have to-day. I hear, however, that no 
Indians are ever sea-sick in their own canoes, even in 
the midst of the fiercest storms. There must be 
something in the construction or movement of our 
vessels which does not agree with their stomachs or 
brains. 

" I was forced to turn out of my bunk betimes just 
now, owing to the frightful effluvium below. More- 
over, I had found sleeping utterly impracticable on 
account of the four Klootchmen (Indian women), who 
chattered and quarrelled unceasingly all the night 
through, spitting at one another like cats. As I have 
often seen Chinese do the same, this reminds me that 



but how it comes that the same phenomenon should occur in a country in 
almost the same latitude as England, is a problem which still remains for 
scientific solution. 

G 



82 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

many peculiarities are common to both races. The 
Indian mode of dancing bears a strange resemblance 
to that in use among the Chinese. The straw or 
dried-grass hats peculiar to Chinamen are also 
made by the Hydah Indians, although with a stouter 
material. From these and numerous kindred 
similarities, I see reason for acquiescing in the 
opinion that they sprang originally from the same 
stock.' 7 

I may here add that, while on board the Rebecca, 
I took pains to persuade the Klootchmen to relin- 
quish the frightful and repulsive habit tbey have of 
disfiguring their faces. The two elder women did 
not appreciate my good intentions; but they were to 
be excused, as the coats of paint certainly served to 
hide their decay and wrinkles. I succeeded with the 
two. younger, who forthwith consented to wash them- 
selves several times a day. It agreeably surprised 
me to find that one of them, the daughter of a chief 
named Skid-a-ga-tees, was really interesting, and the 
other quite a beauty. And as I did not care to con- 
ceal my admiration, of course the newly-discovered 
beauty and I became great friends : and so indeed 
we ever continued, as long as I remained on Queen 
Charlotte Islands. Once she had the courage to bid 



A PORTABLE ARSENAL. 83 

defiance to all her tribe, and even to her own father, 
a chief, in order to save my life, when I was alone 
and unarmed in the presence of a dozen Indians, 
dancing round me with drawn knives and thirsting 
for my blood. 

" August 9th — Strong wind all the forenoon off 
the land. Found ample employment in cleaning my 
revolvers, with a view to using them, if so compelled, 
against the Indians. However friendly Indians may 
appear, they are never wholly to be trusted. I was 
careful therefore to let my travelling-companions 
see that I had a portable arsenal not at all to be 
despised. 

" At noon, the wind shifting round to the port 
side, the Captain gave orders to ' put on the bonnet.' 
The bonnet is an additional piece of canvas tacked 
on to a sail, in moderate weather, to hold more wind. 
It is rather bold of our Captain putting it on just 
here, as the sky looks threatening, and as by this 
time we must have entered Queen Charlotte Sound, 
and are probably already in the broad reach of 
sea which separates Vancouver from Queen Char- 
lotte Islands, and where the winds are never to be 
depended upon. Still, a real storm is of rare occur- 
rence during the summer months in these seas. 

g2 



84 QUEEN CHAKLOTTE ISLANDS. 

Our Captain tells me he intends to make a dash across 
while the weather holds up, in hopes of catching sight 
of the islands before dark, and thus run us in direct 
to our destination. Sailing a point or two out of the 
course has often resulted in the vessel passing the 
islands. The Captain says that actually happened to 
him once before. He did not know the least where 
he was till he had the good luck to fall in with a 
whaler, some 300 miles in another direction, south- 
west of Queen Charlotte. In our case, had we known 
of any kind of harbour near the Head of Vancouver, 
we should have doubtless run in there for shelter, 
and so have made sure of a whole day to scud across. 
When these northern shores become colonized, this 
running-across difficulty, which must then occur 
daily, will assuredly be obviated by the erection of 
two lighthouses, one on Scott's Island at the Head of 
Vancouver, the other on Cape St. James, the most 
southerly point of Queen Charlotte. 

" Our steersman gives such little satisfaction to the 
Captain, that the latter, having ' cunned' the schooner 
nearly all the day, has at last been obliged to take 
the wheel himself. To cun a vessel is the nautical 
phrase for directing the man at the helm how to 
steer. It is a common thing in all new countries 



THE " SPOONDRIFT. ,, 85 

to see men assuming a responsible position without 
a trace of the qualifications necessary to enable them 
to fulfil its duties. This is very noticeable in the 
United States, and, so far, not less so in British 
Columbia. When our colony has been better popu- 
lated and organized, such incongruities will no doubt 
duly disappear under the influence of English civiliza- 
tion. At present, nothing is commoner out here than 
for a man to be a tailor or a gold-miner one year, 
and the next to find himself a merchant, a banker, 
the captain of a coaster, or even a chief magistrate 
in some of the back settlements. It was no wonder, 
therefore, that the Rebecca should have been tempo- 
rarily consigned to the guidance of a professed 
steersman whose appearance and acquirements 
seemed to point rather to tailoring than to 
steering. 

" 5 p.m. — Going on deck after tea-time, I was met 
in the face with a novel kind of shower-bath. It con- 
sisted of a sort of sprinkling of sea-water, which swept 
in a perfect tempest from the surface of the waves 
and fled like a vapour before the wind. The British 
Columbians call it the spoondrift, and I am not 
aware that it exists, at least not with the same inten- 
sity and continuity, in any other part of the globe. 7 ' 



86 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

"August 10th. — We were not able to sight land 
before sunset last night. We consequently kept on 
our course in the dark, trusting that early dawn 
would not fail to give us the first inkling of our long 
looked for destination. 

" This morning I turned out with the dog-watch, 
that is, at 4 a.m. The wind had fallen during the 
night, however, and there was not a sign of land to 
be seen. 

" We sailed perseveringly on over a deliciously 
smooth sea, everybody keeping a sharp look-out, 
when towards eight o'clock I was the first to observe 
two little shadows about the size of a hat, which 
seemed to be suspended above the water. As we 
coursed onward, they gradually assumed a more sub- 
stantial form, appearing to touch the water. We all 
believed it to be land ; but, after a prolonged strain- 
ing of our united eyes, we felt satisfied that it really 
was Cape St. James, the most south-easterly point of 
Queen Charlotte Islands. Having indulged a moment 
in the pleasant prospect of our voyage speedily ter- 
minating, all the passengers crowded down the hatch- 
way to breakfast. Upon our regaining the deck, in 
half an hour's time, the veritable Cape St. James 
had come distinctly into view. 



WHALES AND PORPOISES. 87 

"10 a.m. — All is now still and serene. The 
glorious expanse of sea, over which our little vessel 
wends its solitary way, tends to induce tranquillity 
of mind and to invite to serious thought. 

" Astern of us lies spread out the vast Pacific 
Ocean, completely alive with whales and porpoises. 
The whales are quietly ploughing the surface, and 
every now and then spouting streams of water high 
up into the air, whilst the porpoises, in a widely ex- 
tended corps oVarmee, toss their ungainly carcases 
hither and thither athwart the placid main, and yet, 
led by some leader more swift than his fellows, seem 
somehow to be all making their way seaward. Who 
dare foretell how soon these frequenters of this 
half-known ocean-path will be driven from the field 
of their sports, and their inheritance be taken posses- 
sion of by the fleets of civilization ? 

u Our schooner's bearings being now altered from 
W.S.W. seaway point, with If variation point, to 
N.W. f W., we see right ahead of us the island, or 
rather the islands, which since a few years after 
their discovery, towards the close of the last century, 
have gone by the name of King George the Third's 
Queen Consort. 

" My first observation shows me that the lay of 



88 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

the land is unexpectedly low.* Its greatest elevation, 
as I hear from the Captain, does not exceed eight 
hundred feet above the sea-level. The mountain 
tops, or, to speak more correctly, the hill-tops, are 
sharp and peaky, thus manifesting at once their 
volcanic origin. Here and there the hills open out, 
revealing a series of matchless harbours, from which 
large flats shelve off well into the interior. The flats 
are covered with forests of stupendous timber, chiefly 
pine and cedar. 

" I have just looked hard from my seat on deck at 
these reaches, which begin almost from the water's 
edge, and seem endless; and my strong idea is that 
the soil itself must be of the very richest kind to 
produce such stately and perfect timber. I take it 
that, in the background among the ridges, there are 
lying near the surface extensive treasures of minerals, 
only wanting a few blasts of gunpowder to divulge 
them to the light of day. 

u As far as the eye can reach either way, the land 
is a picture of loveliness. The very atmosphere 
seems laden with the perfume of its vegetation. The 



* There is a good description, with an excellent illustration of Cape St. 
James, in Captain Dixon's Voyage to the North- West Coast of America 
(p. 214), published in the last century. 



OFF CAPE ST. JAMES. 89 

outer-shore lines look black and shapeless ; but they 
are backed by a gigantesque fringe of wood-country. 
Such is the closeness of the heavy timber that, at this 
distance, no great variety of colour presents itself to 
view; but again, if this country lacks brilliancy in 
its foliage, the massive green of the trees amply com- 
pensates for it. Were an uninformed stranger, who 
had never travelled in southern latitudes, put down 
suddenly on Queen Charlotte Islands, his first idea 
would be to fancy himself transported to some tropical 
clime. In order fully to carry out the illusion, no- 
thing but the indigenous vegetation of the south need 
be added to the luxuriance which I see filling up the 
landscape at every point. Various natural provisions 
combine to afford grateful shelter to all this forest- 
land. The principal of these causes is the arctic 
current which sweeps down along the coast the whole 
year round, the chilled sea-water being modified in 
its turn by warm westerly breezes. Hence the tem- 
perature is nearly always mild, and never high. 
Neither, as our Captain asserts, do the islands 
harbour green flies or any of the destructive insect 
fauna which impede luxuriant growth in Europe, 
and deteriorate the pleasures which we derive from 
the rich vegetation of the south. For this reason it 



90 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

requires little perspicuity to foresee a day when the 
fair land we are now approaching will be able to boast 
of such an open-air fruitage and florage as would do 
honour to any nobleman's hot-house in England. 

" Upon whose shoulders rests the blame, then, that 
valuable islands like these should have remained 
totally uncolonized, and to all intents and purposes 
almost unknown, for well nigh a century since Cap- 
tain Dixon first took possession of them in the 
name of the king of England ? 

" It is not necessary to speculate on part at least 
of the answer, when we know that for fifteen years 
a combination of traders, known as the Hudson's Bay 
Company, kept undivided control over them." 



91 



CHAPTER VII. 

OFF SKINCUTTLE ISLAND — SITUATION OF THE ISLETS — FIRST LOOK-ROUND — 
FIRST RESIDENT ENGLISHMAN ON QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS — NOMEN- 
CLATURE OF THE GROUP — SITE TO ENCAMP — RATE OF WAGES TO WORK- 
MEN — CARIBOO — BEARS AND EAGLES — MOUNTAIN GOATS. 

Late in the afternoon of August the 11th we let go 
our anchor off Skincuttle, a very pretty little island, 
comprising some forty acres of superficial area. 

Thus we did the passage from Victoria, Vancouver, 
in exactly six days, nineteen and a half hours. Had 
we kept to the Inside Passage, it would, I feel 
assured, have taken us the best part of a month to 
reach Queen Charlotte. 

Skincuttle lies in latitude 52° 18' 0" N., longitude 
131° 07' 0" W. — that is to say, in a line nearly north- 
west from the southernmost point of Cape St. James. 

At low water this islet is seen to be joined to 
several others of a similar character, which, when 
not submerged, form a connected strip of land 
stretching out towards the Sound. 



92 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

Although these islets lie together in an open 
position, and are unprotected against storms from 
any part of the compass, none of them bear evi- 
dence of having suffered much, if at all. In other 
countries where trees have to struggle to maturity 
in the midst of storms and adverse winds, as for 
example on our Cumberland and Westmoreland sea- 
board, they seldom attain to great altitude, and are 
not to be mentioned in respect of real straightness. 
But here, on this outlandish sea-girt holm, every tree 
is marvellously high, besides being thick in propor- 
tion, and as straight as an arrow to the very top. 
One of my first amusements was to go and take the 
measurement of a fine cedar. I found it to measure, 
at a spot I could touch with my arm, four feet ten 
inches in diameter, which gave fifteen feet four 
inches in circumference. Its height was two hundred 
and fifty feet — not exactly that, perhaps, but very 
nearly so, as I measured by a means which, though 
wanting in elegance, is simple and effective, and has 
been generally adopted amongst experienced bush- 
men and lumberers throughout North America. 
This plan is to walk away from the tree till you can 
sight its topmast branch when looking backwards 
between your legs. You have then got the tree's 



A FIRST LOOK ROUND. 93 

height in the distance between the spot where you 
stand and the base of the tree itself. The accuracy 
of this process in " natural trigonometry " is astonish- 
ing; for after a little practice it can be relied upon 
within a foot or so. The largest trees on Skincuttle, 
and indeed on the main of Queen Charlotte Islands, 
are the cedars ; but the pines are more perfect and 
more numerous. They shoot up, ramrod-like, with- 
out one single branch, or without a knot even, to mar 
their bolt-uprightness, if I may be allowed to coin 
the word, till near their highest point, when they 
push out some famous tufts and bunches l which give 
them the appearance of overgrown umbrellas. 

The following brief extract from my Diary describes 
the look-round, soon after landing, of the first English- 
man who ever went to reside on Queen Charlotte 
Islands : — 

"I note a ridge extending into the sea for a 
distance of several hundred yards on the east side of 
this islet (Skincuttle). At high tide the ridge is 
almost covered with water; and parallel with it on 
the west side another ridge runs out, plentifully sup- 
plied with timber. The soundings between either ridge 
and the land are thirty feet deep, and there is capita] 
holding ground. These waters form little lagoons, 



94 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

in fact, and seem to offer admirable shelter to boats 
and schooners. If it were not for the presence of the 
Indians, I could easily imagine myself on one of our 
home islands, in the embouchure of the river Clyde. 
However, as I look landward again, I am soon un- 
deceived. And yet the grand views which surround 
me on all sides help to cheer my spirits, and to 
make me temporarily forget that I have come six 
thousand miles away from my native land, and that 
our party is separated by a broad sound from the 
nearest civilized beings. Sitting down to make this 
entry in my Diary on a rising ground above the 
little harbour, I can take into one reach a variety 
of exquisite landscape. Cedars huge and venerable, 
pines stalwart, yet everlastingly young, crowd together 
upon almost every available space of ground. Away 
on the shore of another islet opposite, a cluster of 
pine-trees is conspicuous among the rest. A sheet 
of water can be partly seen through them ; while at 
their left rises a high hill, upon which I observe 
a darkish object. It will serve me excellently as a 
landmark by-and-by. Through my glass it appears 
to be an extinct volcano ; for it is hollowed out like 
a decayed tooth, and its immediate vicinity is devoid 
of timber." 




JaTie Sib-aims Del 130 



THE GROUP DESCRIBED. 95 

The group known as Queen Charlotte Islands* 
consists of two large islands, called Graham and 
Moresby, measuring together with two others smaller, 
called North and Prevost Islands, 180 English miles, 
by 60 miles at its greatest width. There are number- 
less islets besides, lying about the coast in various 
directions, but principally around Moresby Island. 

Amongst these Skincuttle holds a prominent posi- 
tion; and it was here that, upon due inquiry, I 
determined to fix my head- quarters. 

The day after we arrived, the Rebecca, having first 
discharged our portion of her cargo, set sail again for 
the Stickeen River gold mines, with a fair but stiffish 
breeze. The whole morning the rain came down in 
torrents, at which I mightily exulted, knowing that 
the Indians would be sure to connect my arrival with 
whatever natural phenomena it happened to coincide 
in point of time. Their spring and summer had been 
so extraordinarily dry as almost to amount to a 
drought. This, then, being their first rainfall for 
many months, the honour and benefit of it was im- 



* All the principal islands, points, straits, rivers, and inlets on the North 
Pacific coast which have not retained their Indian nomenclature, are called 
after the different English navigators who discovered or explored them, or 
after the private friends of those explorers, or after the celebrities of the 
day in England, or after the date of discovery. 



96 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

puted to me. Without precisely pleading guilty to 
the soft impeachment, I thought it would have 
been folly to attempt to enlighten them at that 
stage of the intercourse. Their happy augury 
as to the landing of the English mining-party on 
Skincuttle was therefore thankfully accepted. 

Afterwards I learnt, partly too by my own ex- 
perience, that a prolonged dearth of rain is by 
no means uncommon in these islands, which seems 
the more singular if the prodigious quantity of 
timber they contain be considered. 

The departure of the little schooner brought home 
to my men, though more particularly to myself, that 
we were now destined to settle on a comparatively 
desert island. Bar the solitude, and our life was 
to be a mild edition of Robinson Crusoe's. But as 
none of the men were in any degree desirable com- 
panions for me, I soon perceived that, in a great 
measure, I should have to endure the solitude also. 

My first care and duty was to decide on a site to 
encamp. This, however, I could not do until I had 
ascertained where the copper ore lay, supposing such 
to exist in any available quantities on Skincuttle. 
Consequently, as soon as the rain would let me, I 
proceeded north from the little harbour, or rather 



WAGES TO MISERS. 97 

canoe-entrance, and had scarcely gone a hundred 

yards, when, by the help of a quick eye and my 

geological hammer. I hit upon evidences of a fine 

underlying lode. I got the men up at once, and 

crave directions for the construction of the necessarv 
<-^ ■ 

huts, and for adequate preparations towards the 
sinking of a shaft. 

Meanwhile, those of the Indians whose homes 
were in this neighbourhood made off to their friends. 
to distribute the diversified stock of presents or pur- 
chases, from a button to a revolver, which they had 
brought with them. Judging by the demented 
condition of not a few among the natives, on that 
first evening of ours, whisky. I should say. figured 
copiously in the distributions. 

My agreement with the Queen Charlotte Mining 
Company was that the miners we employed should be 
] at the rate of fifty to sixty dollars a month — 
that is. in round numbers, twelve pounds, besides 
their board. Such a rate sounds high, but the field 
was new and experimental: while the gold-diggings at 
Cariboo created too constant and attractive a demand 
in the Victorian market not to make labourers in- 
dependent. 

It is certain that anybody who does not mind the 

H 



98 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

risk, labour, and exposure of the Cariboo district, 
under the grim shadow of the Rocky Mountains, can 
speedily amass a fortune there, provided he has 
capital — say, at least 1001. to start with. If he 
should try it on less than that, he is equally 
certain to return with nothing, or, in plain English, 
ruined. With 100/. a farm might be bought, or an 
interest secured in one of the successful gold-claims 
which are always in the market. I know no place 
in the world, however, where more wit is required, 
or, better, where a larger amount of small cunning is 
the sine qua non for getting on in life, than Cariboo. 
If your seller should be a Yankee, it will run hard 
with him if he does not have the best of the bar- 
gain. The Yankee axiom in the sales at Cariboo is 
that, the higher the sum wanted for the gold-claim, 
the greater the proof of its value. I have known 
Cariboo claims offered, ay and sold too, for as much 
as 100,000 dollars, when they were not worth five 
dollars, or would not pay the cost of developing. On 
the other hand, I once had a claim there myself, for 
which I asked 3000 dollars, a fair price in the English 
sense of the term; but the claim was summarily 
condemned, because of my low valuation of it; 
whereas, if I had been unprincipled enough to put 



. COPPER-FINDS. 99 

it up at 20,000, it would have assuredly found a 
ready purchaser. In other words, Cariboo is one 
immense gambling-table, upon which any man may 
chance to win a competence in a day, but yet to 
which labour, at enormous wages, comes necessarily 
in aid. 

With such a rivalry at our elbow, therefore, it will 
cause no surprise that we were well content to 
be able to retain eight able-bodied men, despite the 
price they asked. 

While the men worked away, I went off in a 
canoe, accompanied only by my gun, my hammer, 
and one assistant, to explore some of the islets which 
lie between Skincuttle and Cape St James. The 
very first we landed on was a mere ledge of rocks, 
and so wholly destitute of vegetation that I had 
little difficulty in prosecuting my search. And 
soon, in fact, I discovered a rich spur of variegated 
copper running E.S.E., with other cupriferous in- 
dications up and down the islet's surface. The 
variegated copper lay in a vein of beautiful stalactitic 
spar, averaging two feet in width, by thirty feet in 
length, on the out-crop. I named the ledge Rock 
Island. Thence we paddled across to what seemed 
the mainland, but what proved to be surrounded by 

h 2 



100 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

water. This I named Burnaby Island. All these 
islets have extremely rocky and precipitate shores, 
though of course in miniature. Groping along 
Burnaby's rock-bound shore, I was fortunate in 
making further discoveries of copper. I then gathered 
my specimens into the canoe, and, leaving them in 
charge of my assistant, I scrambled into the bush 
with my gun, but could not light upon any game. 
It was late when I returned, without any result, 
except a strong conviction that St. Patrick must 
have paid an occult visit to these regions, for no 
toad, reptile, or creeping thing of any sort could I 
perceive. 

Not long afterwards I noted down some experiences 
of the brute creation on Queen Charlotte Islands, in 
my Diary, as follows : — 

" The only dangerous animals or birds here are the 
bears and the eagles. The black bear family (ursus 
americanus) is the most numerous, though the eagle 
tribe bids fair to compete with it. Both bears and 
eagles, however, studiously avoid man. I have passed 
many a pleasant afternoon watching the eagles at their 
game offish-catching. Their practice is to perch them- 
selves on a high tree close to the sea-shore, and in- 
variably on the verge of some promontory. From 




EAGLES AND GULLS. 101 

these elevated positions they come down ' in one fell 
swoop ' upon the unsuspecting fish, devouring them 
then and there if they are hungry, but otherwise 
carrying them ' away to the mountain's brow ' as food 
for their young. Sometimes the sea-gull will try the 
same manoeuvre, though of course on a very limited 
scale. Upon that, the ever-watchful eagle, uttering 
a ferocious shriek, darts instantly after him in pur- 
suit. But even before the eagle can reach him, the 
terrified gull has dropped his little fish, which his 
pursuer catches again before it touches the water. 
There are here two species of eagles, the common 
grey and the bald or white-headed. The latter, 
known to science as the haliaetus leucocephalus, may 
be seen in every part of these Islands, and is the one 
of all the genus which has made itself the most 
famous, or rather infamous, by leading a life of 
robbery. It was this propensity which made Franklin 
enter his strong protest against adopting the white- 
headed eagle as the type of the nationality of the 
United States, urging, as his reason for objecting, that 
it was ' a bird of bad moral character, who did not 
get his living honestly.' " 

I often listened to animals crying wildly, par- 
ticularly at night, on the tops of the hills. To my 



102 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

ear the cry resembled that of the mountain goat 
(aplocerus monta?ius) J so plentiful on the mainland of 
British Columbia. It was never possible to me to get 
near enough to see. But I consider it probable that 
they are mountain goats, as Point Rose, the north- 
easternmost promontory of Graham Island, is so 
near some other islands lying close in upon the 
American continent as to afford an easy refuge to 
the goats, in case of their being pursued by their 
relentless enemies the wolves. 



103 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SHORT EXCURSION — LONG EXCURSION — LASKEEK HARBOUR — 'PAINTED 
INDIANS — " PROTECTION NOTE"— CHIEP SKIDDAN— HIS FRAME-HOUSE — 
CUM-SHE-WAS HARBOUR — KLUE's HOUSE — SLEEPING UNDER SCALPS — 
SEA-BATH — THE ISLANDERS NO SWIMMERS — BACK TO SKINCUTTL3. 

About a week after my arrival at Skin cuttle, leaving 
three of the men to construct a shed or covering 
over the copper-shaft, and three others to go on sink- 
ing the shaft itself, I proceeded up the east coast in 
a canoe I had bought from the Indians, taking with 
me my two remaining men, who, with the Chiefs 
Klue and Skid-a-ga-tees, and two sons of the latter, 
made seven persons in all. 

We landed on an islet, and, while my men looked 
to the provisions and cooking, I took a careful survey 
and searched for minerals, finding several veins of 
iron pyrites, traces of coal in the form of lignite, 
and lastly, though not least, an extensively denned 
vein of silver, as I thought, on the strength of which 
I ventured to name our landing-place Silver Island. 
There was no means of testing this on the spot. 



104 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

Seriously believing it to be silver, however, I had as 
much taken down to the canoe as it could safely 
carry, and, after a frugal picnic in high spirits on the 
rocks, ordered a speedy paddle back to Skincuttle. 
Imagine my disgust, on applying a test, to discover 
that, though a rare vein, it was only a vein of metallic 
arsenide. 

This sudden return to head-quarters so completely 
disarranged my previous plans, that I now decided 
upon a lengthy expedition instead of a short one. 

I gave orders for storing the canoe with a month's 
provisions; and meantime I thought to try whether 
Rock Island was as barren of sport as of grass. To 
my surprise I beat up a large flock in no time, and 
blazing right into them, killed thirty-four brace 
in one single shot. These were large birds, and 
of the species known on Vancouver as Wilson's 
snipe (gallinago Wilsonii). It was pleasant to feel 
1 could enjoy a day's sport, any time, at a moment's 
notice, whenever the fancy took me. 

By tnis time I had become good friends with 
several of the Indian chiefs, a friendly word spoken 
in my behalf by Kitguen, or Klue,* having smoothed 

* I must hers explain that Kitguen, my first and fast friend among 
the Queen Charlotte Islanders, and Chief Klue, are one and the same 



LASKEEK HARBOUR. 105 

the way very considerably. It is a mistake to suppose 
that frankness and plain-spokenness have not their, 
due effect on savages, as well as on ordinary mortals. 
The savage, no doubt, generally entertains a lurking 
suspicion of your motives ; but if he does afterwards 
turn upon you — unless of course a greed for gain 
should prompt his treachery — it will always prove to 
be that he considers you are not acting up to your 
professions. 

One bright morning, therefore, we started in my 
canoe for Chief Klue's settlement, at a place 
which the Indians called Laskeek, on the eastern 
coast. I took two others of my men with me. The 
chief was accompanied by two of his Si wash or petty 
chiefs, who rejoiced respectively in the style and title 
of Shilly-gutts and Laugh-goon-us. 

A fair wind gracing our expedition we crowded 
on every stitch of canvas we could muster, and all of 
us paddling lustily together, the canoe reached 
Laskeek Harbour in about twelve hours. Now mine 
had been the only canoe down at Skincuttle, and, I 
need scarce add, the electric telegraph is still an 

person. Kitguen was his former name, and is still his familiar name ; but on 
succeeding to the Head Chieftainship of Laskeek, his own section of the 
Hydah tribe, by the death of his elder brother in a fight, he assumed for 
public use the title his brother had held before him. 



106 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

institution of the future for Queen Charlotte Islands. 
And yet, although my visit to Klue's settlement had 
not been arranged till the previous day, by some in- 
comprehensible means peculiarly Indian, accurate 
news of my intention to come had preceded us to 
Laskeek. In consequence, there was a general turn- 
out, even to the papoose in arms, to see me land. 

The sun not having set as yet, I was enabled to 
take a comprehensive survey of my expectant hosts, 
as far as concerned their external presentment. 
There was not a clean face to be seen amongst them, 
nor a decent pair of hands. The faces and hands of 
men, women, and children, were so thickly beslimed 
and befouled with the blackest of black paint, that 
no one feature could be discerned in its natural form. 
Hardly did I recognise human beings in the creatures 
who crowded around me on the strand. Klue 
promised, however, that they should all be washed 
the next morning, which was certainly considerate of 
him, as, by putting on a beautiful black polish, the 
poor things had intended to pay me the highest mark 
of respect. It is their full-dress uniform, in fact. 

The harbour of Laskeek is situated in lat. 52° 50' N., 
long. 131° 28' W. 

The morning after my arrival, the Klue chiefs, high 



A " PROTECTION-NOTE.' 



107 




and petty, taking advantage of my presence at Las- 
keek, held an extra-parliamentary session. They had 
heard that an English gunboat or two might shortly 
be expected from Esquimalt, and they requested me 
to give them — the chiefs assembled in Council — a re- 
ference or protection note. I presented my new allies 
with the following certificate, first making a copy 
of it for the amusement of friends in England : — 

" This is to certify that the undermentioned Chiefs 
are good men, and well disposed towards the whites. 
At least they say so ; and you must take their word 
for what it is worth. I encamped amongst them last 
night while prospecting for minerals in this section, 
and found them honest during my short visit. 

"F. Poole, 

" Engineer to the Queen Charlotte Mining Company. 

" Chiefs. 

Skish-gills. Hotten. 

Stash. King-a-Kona. 

Sklash-Hagan. Hy-ass. 

Ki-ush. Hous-te. 

Naw-way. Got-quance. 



Gundless. 

Tong-law. 

Ich-gum. 

Link-is-tus. 

Skutch-a. 

Ga-lla. 

Skid-a-ga-tees. 

Sah-qua. 



Kiss-a-gura (Sen.) Kad-da-ga-cow. 
Lamma. Co-a-delly. 

Kiss-a-gura (Jun.) Skilte-killong." 



108 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

In the afternoon of the same day, Klue invited 
me to go with him to the home of the Skiddan 
Indians, a tribe with whom he was on friendly terms, 
and who also dwelt on the sea-shore, but further up 
the coast. Klue's people are a branch or section 
of the Hydah tribe, all the various chiefs of 
which seemed to consider themselves as a sort of 
vassals to the great chief of the Skiddan tribe. 
How this reconciled itself with Klue's claim to 
the Head Chieftainship of the whole islands, I never 
could quite make out. 

As I afterwards took down my adventures and 
impressions during this by-expedition with Klue, I 
shall here transcribe them literally : — 

u The high and mighty chief Skiddan sat in state, 
that is, at Skiddan Harbour, somewhat to the north- 
ward of Laskeek. He did not rise when I entered, 
but continued sitting on a rough kind of platform, with 
his legs crossed like a tailor's. I was invited to stand 
on his right, however, whilst my cook, who did duty 
as my aide-de-camp and private secretary, had a place 
assigned him to the left. The whole of the tribe then 
squatted down, also cross-legged, on some low benches 



or logs. 



Skiddan himself delivered a grand speech, the 



CHIEF SKIDD AN. 109 

general purport of which I gathered to be an advice 
and solemn injunction to his people to afford me 
every protection and assistance. They listened atten- 
tively, now and then interrupting Skiddan's harangue 
with a queer uplifting of arms and murmurs of 
approbation, or with a sudden outburst of compli- 
mentary grunts directed at me. As soon as the 
chief had ended, I took up the thread of the pro- 
ceedings, by assuring, the tribe through Klue, of my 
4 sentiments of the highest consideration,' meaning 
under the circumstances not much more than a 
Frenchman means when he sticks those absurd 
words at the bottom of a letter. 

"The first part of the ceremony being over, I 
offered a pipeful of tobacco to each of the petty 
chiefs. 

u This is a present which they always expect from 
a stranger. But greatly as the gift of tobacco pleases 
an Indian, it does not approximate in his eyes to the 
value of ' a testimonial, 1 or ' a paper,' as they term it. 
Fortunate it is that this way to their good graces 
comes cheap ; for they set quite as great a value on 
an old invoice or a receipt as upon a genuine certifi- 
cate. So long as the paper contains writing, it 
matters nothing what the writing is. I have already 



110 QUEEN CHAKLOTTE ISLANDS. 

had abundant proof of it. For on several occasions 
Indians have brought me bundles of waste paper, 
in the firm belief that they were, every one, so many 
bona-fide references. They had received these as 
testimonials of good behaviour, or more probably 
begged them from some merchant or other at Vic- 
toria. Of course it was not only lawful but well to 
leave those Indians in the delusion that their ' papers' 
were hyass-closh, that is, very good. I saw no reason 
for undeceiving even the great Skiddan. Give the 
Indians a small piece of tobacco, or a few fishing- 
hooks, and they are not merely satisfied, but they will 
make large returns in fish or game, and some- 
times in really valuable fur-skins. After all, the true 
valuation of these things is relative, according to the 
want and mind of the purchaser. Lately I bought 
two fine skins of the black bear for twenty-five cents, 
or one shilling apiece. In Europe they would cer- 
tainly fetch Yil. each. They are a drug in the home- 
market of the North Pacific Indian. 

" Having, upon urgent request, distributed a few 
bits of paper, the Skiddan made me a formal present 
of a minz or mink skin, together with a couple of 
uncommon duck-footed birds, whilst from one of the 
Indian women I received a very singular kind of 



skiddan's house. Ill 

crab (echinocerus cibariiis), which I believe is only 
found on the coasts of the North Pacific, and rarely 
even there. 

" The building in which I was thus glorified con- 
sisted of very large frame-house. Its shape was 
nearly a square, its dimensions being some fifty feet 
by fifty, quite ten feet of which were dug out of the 
earth, so as to make the real height from the ground 
forty feet. It had been substantially constructed, 
and it readily accommodated the seven hundred 
Indians who met me under that roof. 

" However, my glorification did not in the least 
deceive me. That a White should have been so 
received there, was solely referable to the report 
of the gunboats coming up. Skiddan has the 
character of being the most selfish and blood- 
thirsty savage on the coast. He has always been 
treated better than any of the other chiefs by the 
English government, and yet he is ever giving us 
trouble. 

" The sun was fast sinking as at last we pushed 
off in Klue's canoe. On looking over our effects, I 
was glad to find that only a few tin spoons had been 
stolen. But I was still more pleased to think that 
every stroke of our paddles took us further from 



112 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

Skiddan's harbour; for my friends at Victoria had 
well warned me never to trust my skin to him after 
dark. 

" At 10 p.m. we paddled into Cum-she-was Har- 
bour, a place about fifteen miles more to the north, 
and there we encamped for the night The next 
morning the Cum-she-was Indians held a meeting 
of their tribe. They received me in a "great house'' 
not unlike that of the Skiddans, and with a ceremo- 
nial which almost exactly repeated the scene of 
the day before, including however a dash more of 
sincerity. What astonished me was to see the whole 
of the walls inside their building hung with linen, 
fine, white, and clean. This formed a very unex- 
pected feature in my reception. I should have 
been sorely puzzled to account for it, had not Klue 
whispered to me that, many years ago, a large trading 
vessel of some sort put into Cum-she-was, the crew 
of which were murdered and its stores pillaged. 
The linen was part of the pillage — not a doubt 
about it. 

"I saw nothing of interest to detain me among 
the Cum-she-was; and considering that I had gone 
far enough north for this one trip, I turned the 
canoe's head towards Laskeek, just calling on our 



klue's house. 113 

way at Skiddan Harbour, and scattering there a few 
more presents, in the shape of pins, needles, and shirt- 
buttons. 

" "We did not get back to Laskeek till 11 p.m., and, 
as it was too late to pitch my tent according to 
custom, I accepted Klue's invitation to sleep at his 
patrimonial mansion. 

" I have some reason to remember my first night 
under the roof of Chief Klue. 

" His house was a largish one, built in the usual 
Indian way, of wood laid horizontally in light logs, 
and slightly elevated above the ground upon a plat- 
form. Despite the sheen of the moon, I looked in 
vain for the entrance, and was beginning to think 
there must be some Indian dodge in its concealment, 
with a view probably to providing against sudden 
attacks, when a Klootchman young lady came trip- 
ping along to my assistance. Approaching a big 
hole, three feet in circumference, and three feet from 
the platform's base in the front of the house, she, 
very unceremoniously, thrust first one leg through, 
■ evidently without touching the bottom on the other 
side, secondly her head and arms, and finally, by 
means of a dexterous jerk, dragged the rest of her 
body after her. This was the door, then, through 

I 



1 1 4 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

which the inmates, both male and female, had to 
scramble whenever they felt disposed to retire to the 
domestic hearth. The manoeuvres required to 
accomplish the feat in question were assuredly any- 
thing but graceful, especially for a lady: and yet 
the ladies performed it in the most satisfactory 
manner, without ever doubling up in a heap on the 
floor inside. Perforce, I tried the same method 
myself, and, though unsuccessful at the first attempt, 
I did succeed at the second, greatly to the delight 
of the pretty Klootchman, who turned out to be 
Klue's daughter-in-law, and my chambermaid for that 
night. 

" Inside the house these was little to be seen, 
either by day or by night, owing chiefly to the 
smouldering fire, which, having no outlet, filled the 
one large room with its smoke. There were no 
windows, the Indians despising such a convenience. 
The only rays of light, from sun or moon, came 
through the big hole in the wall, alias the door. But 
on my getting in, being conducted to the central fire, 
I found cedar-bark mats spread over the hard 
ground, and upon these we all lay down together, 
with our feet firewards, and with our heads outwards, 
like the spokes of a wheel. No little nerve was 



SLEEPING UNDER SCALPS. 115 

requisite, I must acknowledge, to make up one's 
mind to sleep in such an atmosphere; but, as they 
would have been terribly offended had I refused, I 
made a virtue of necessity, and took to it kindly. 

" Other horrors besides the atmosphere now 
awaited me, for I was assigned the place of honour 
in the family-couch, namely, under the same blanket- 
ing with the chief and his daughter, a very interest- 
ing young girl, and to lie between them. 

" Having been paddling away all day, as hard as 
any Indian, I naturally felt anxious to restore my 
strength with sound refreshing sleep. Some in- 
definable sensation, however, seemed to be keeping 
me awake. I tossed about nearly all night, not 
much to the comfort of my bedfellows, I should 
fancy. As the small hours of the morning advanced, 
I found my head inconveniently knocking against an 
upright pole. Surely a most extraordinary position 
for a pole, since it undoubtedly served no architec- 
tural or ornamental purpose. By degrees this pole 
gained complete possession of my thoughts, and the 
more I went on thinking, the more persuaded did I 
become that it had something hideous connected with 
it. An impulse then seized me to get up and 
examine it; but, as that would have looked like a 

i2 



116 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

betrayal of fear— a consummation always to be avoided 
in the presence of savages — I lay still. Presently, an 
accidental kick from one of the Indians caused the 
fire to flare. The flare lasted only two or three 
seconds, yet quite long enough to reveal to my 
horrified senses at least a hundred scalps fastened 
round the top of the pole, right above me. Fancy 
my feelings ! Despite Klue's professed friendship, and 
the place of lionour I was occupying in the family 
couch, I instinctively put my hand to my own poll, 
and was not without a throb of thankfulness to find 
it so far safe. Need it be added that I made my 
escape as soon as I could prudently do so? 

" The excuse I gave for such early rising was my 
anxiety to get the benefit of a sea-bath, in which I 
and my two men forthwith indulged, our clothes 
being meanwhile hung up to air on a tree, to the 
infinite diversion of a crowd of spectators. 

" But nothing appeared to tickle the fancy of the 
Indians so much as our swimming. It supplied the 
crowd with a perfect fund of amusement, and was, I 
believe, wholly new to them. I have never seen any 
of the North Pacific Indians swim, unless previously 
taught by me. In this they differ from all other 
coloured races, who are mostly good swimmers. And 



BACK TO SKINCUTTLE. 



117 



yet the Queen Charlotte Indians of every tribe live 
continually on the water." 

Having prospected Laskeek Harbour, without ob- 
taining anything out of it to repay me for the trouble, 
I returned in another day or two to Skincuttle, 
Klue and my other companions coming back also. 



118 



CHAPTER IX. 

COPPER — NEW SHAFT — ATTACK BY INDIANS— BUSHING IN AMONGST THEM — 
THE BONE OE CONTENTION— CHIEF SKID-A-GA-TEES — THE " KECKWALLY 
TYHEE" — SKID-A-GA-TEES DRAWS OFF — THE CUM-SHE-WAS — A CRISIS — 
REMOVAL TO' BURNABY ISLAND — THE RAFT. 

I now spent a considerable time in superintending 
the working of our copper-shaft at Skincuttle, and in 
erecting a comfortable log-house to serve as our habi- 
tation. 

About the middle of October I had my first taste 
of annoyance from the Indians. 

One day I stood leaning against the walls of our 
wild home, trying to converse with Klue in his own 
language, when somebody near us raised a cry of 
surprise. Instantly numberless eyes were directed 
towards the offing of our little bay, and, on looking 
myself, I observed several canoes full of strange 
Indians, who soon after landed. What on earth did 
they want? I said to Klue, who answered at once, 
that, whatever the new-comers might pretend, they 



AN INVASION. 119 

were his mortal enemies, and that their real object 
certainly was to find out whether we explorers could 
not be plundered. 

Sure enough, though they began by affecting an 
anxiety to trade with us, it was evident, from their 
not having brought down any article of traffic, that 
they had very different intentions. If I had once 
allowed them to commence trading, they would have 
expected to enter the log-house for that purpose. I 
therefore firmly resisted their specious overtures, and, 
in spite of repeated entreaties from them during the 
afternoon, continued obdurate to every blandishment, 
simply ordering my men to look well to our fire- 
arms. 

The following morning our suspicions were con- 
firmed by the arrival of additional ,canoes-full. 
Upon which Klue, thinking it was getting too hot 
for us, suddenly vanished off in one of those odd 
flights so common in Indian life, but so incompre- 
hensible, as regards the method of it, to civilized 
minds. 

Our invaders quickly divined that he had gone to 
collect reinforcements amongst his tribe. At the 
same time strong signs showed themselves of an 
approaching change in the weather, very dangerous 



120 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

to the safety of the canoe-flotilla. Impelled by either 
of these causes, or perhaps by both, the hostile In- 
dians unconsciously agreed with FalstafF that " the 
better part of valour is discretion;" for hardly had 
Klue disappeared ere they likewise took their de- 
parture. 

The drama was not half over, however. I extract 
from my Diary the record I made of the next scene, 
thus : — 

"I set my men, and two of Klue's Indians, who 
had just come (the day after the invasion) to work 
at chopping wood, in order to lay in a stock for the 
winter. While they were so employed, I stepped 
into my canoe and paddled over towards Prevost 
Island. 

" I intended to take a south-westerly course, in 
the direction of Cape St. James, and then return by 
N.N.W. to Skincuttle Island. I started early in the 
forenoon : but the distance being greater than antici- 
pated, it was late in the afternoon before my one 
companion and myself reached the point proposed. 
Some miles to the south-west of Skincuttle I dis- 
covered a magnificent harbour, which I named 
Harriet Harbour, but had no time then to enter and 
prospect it. 



AN ATTACK. 121 

" As we steered homeward along the other islets, 
what was my dismay to see our own little harbour 
absolutely crammed full of canoes? Each canoe had 
in it a large crew of Indians, bedaubed from head 
to foot with war-paint, and otherwise martially 
arrayed: whilst the clearance round our log-house 
was crowded with a herd of their fellow- savages, 
yelling and dancing lustily. 

" My companion and I lifted our paddles an instant, 
to contemplate the rather appalling sight; and not 
perceiving any of my other men about, I came to the 
conclusion that they had been every one murdered, 
and that the Indians were now awaiting our advent 
to serve us in the same manner. They had posses- 
sion of the islet as clear as noonday. The impossi- 
bility of our escape seemed equally certain. I con- 
sequently resolved to put a bold front on the matter, 
and venture into the midst of them. 

" Saying a few inspiriting words to the man with 
me, and especially cautioning him not to betray the 
least sign of fear, I headed direct for the landing, and, 
dipping our paddles deep into the water, in another 
moment we were ashore, and in amongst our enemies, 
who had swarmed down to the beach for the purpose 
of intimidation. Finding I was not to be brow- 



122 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

beaten, and seeing my revolvers ready in my hands, 
they made no resistance, while I dashed through 
them right to the log-house. It was completely in 
their possession, but, thank goodness, all my men 
were safe. I had arrived just in the nick of time to 
prevent a massacre. This measure, no doubt, they 
had decided on carrying out; but knowing full well 
that, before they could accomplish it, many of them 
would 'bite the dust,' they evidently lacked the 
courage to begin. 

" The fact was, unseen eyes had watched me out 
to sea, whence the cowardly villains, concluding that 
my outing would last as long as the previous one, 
had judged the time to be favourable for a renewed 
descent upon Skincuttle. My unexpected return 
caused the hostilities to be suspended, and straight- 
way a great wah-wah (talkee) took place between 
the leading Indians and myself. 

" A bone of contention, not wholly unreasonable, 
lay at the bottom of all this trouble. Shortly after 
our first landing in August, the brother-in-law of 
Ninstence, chief of a tribe inhabiting the southern- 
most portions of Moresby Island, had declared 
himself the proprietor of the land we were then 
settling on, and, to keep friendly with the savage, 



CHIEF SKID-A-GA-TEES. 123 

we had paid him down fifty ' two-and-a-half point'* 
blankets. 

" His chieftain-relative, however, having violently 
appropriated the blankets to his own use, the rest of 
the head-chiefs all over Queen Charlotte Islands, 
especially Skiddan and Skid-a-ga-tees, were seized 
with a fit of jealousy. ' Why should Ninstence have 
fifty bran-new blankets, and his brother chiefs have 
none?' was the practical form which the question 
now assumed. There seemed to be only two ways 
of solving it. They might attack Ninstence, but 
then he was strong, whilst even a victory over him 
would not necessarily give each of the rival chiefs 
any very notable share in the fifty blankets. Or, 
we whites might be distrained for another fifty. 
This latter plan commending itself to the statesman- 
like views of Chief Skid-a-ga-tees, the treacherous 
wretch, whom I had taken with me in my coast 
expedition, and whom I had included in my good- 
conduct certificate, determined to make a raid 
upon us. His tribe being the most numerous, 
combative, and powerful of all the tribes in the 

* The staple trade of the Hudson's Bay Company with the North Pacific 
Indians was in blanketing. The size and quality of each blanket used to be 
marked on it by means of short lines or " points" and " half-points," the 
meaning of which the Indians had learnt perfectly to understand. 



124 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

islands, there could be little difficulty in executing 
the plan, he thought. So the other Indians of the 
day before having failed in their trading stratagem, 
down had come Skid-a-ga-tees with his whole body 
of warriors, during my absence, and had impudently 
demanded fifty more blankets. In fact we, as the 
supposed weaker party, although entirely unoffending, 
were to suffer for the intertribal jealousies of the 
chiefs. A truly Indian mode of settling the difficulty, 
and yet one not altogether without its counterpart 
amongst natives professedly civilized. My people 
very wisely and courageously refused to deliver up 
the blankets, whereupon Skid-a-ga-tees, who was not 
accustomed to be thwarted, tried to bully them, and 
threatened to burn down our log-house, carry off all 
our stores, and slaughter my companions to the last 
man. 

" I have little doubt he would have done it, but 
for my turning up in time to assert my authority 
and use my influence. 

" The abject submission of an Indian to his own 
chief is notorious and proverbial. It may not, 
however, be so well known that they extend the 
same respect to those whom they see placed in 
analogous positions amongst foreigners, especially 



INJUDICIOUS FAMILIARITY. 125 

if these are English. As I, then, am the acknow- 
ledged chief of our little party, the Queen Charlotte 
Indians usually treat me with marked deference, 
always referring to my chieftainship for justice in any 
quarrel which may arise between my workmen and 
themselves — that is, so long as we do not give them 
any grievous cause of offence; for in such a case I 
mvself should be the first attacked. 

" In this particular instance I imagine that, if the 
men had been massacred, I should have been seized 
and detained in confinement as a prisoner of war. 

" From the first a great deal too much familiarity 
has unfortunately prevailed at Skincuttle. Seeing 
how I make friends with the chiefs, my men think 
they cannot do better than be c hail-fellow-well-met' 
with the other natives. It is hard persuading them 
that I have judicious reasons, which their private 
position does not suggest. The circumstances are 
just of the kind to nullify argument, and to invite 
temptation, notwithstanding the many warnings we 
have had. For example, the Indians have hung 
about our log-house so perpetually and continuously, 
that of late it has often been close on daybreak before 
we could get rid of them, without wounding their 
touchy natures. It was soon coming to such a pass 



126 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

that we might as well have set up a regular joint- 
stock establishment, if one of my men, an eccentric 
Californian, had not conceived the brilliant idea of 
mixing red pepper with newly-ground coffee, and 
dropping the mixture on to the red-hot stove. The 
effect was instantaneous. They thought it must be 
the Kechwally Tyhee (Chief of the Deep) coming up 
out of the fire. I caused this to be repeated for 
several nights at eight o'clock sharp, and it was 
highly amusing to see them watch the clock till the 
hand pointed nearly to the hour, and then make a 
rush together out of the door, which we quietly 
locked inside, and afterwards scrambled up in peace to 
our sleeping bunks. My men, however, required a 
more forcible lesson than being merely bored. I 
fancy they have now received it. 

" Skid-a-ga-tees's raid met with no more success 
than the strategic tactics of his predecessors. I 
assured him that I should willingly have made him a 
present of some blankets if he had asked me for 
them civilly, but that the claim he asserted was pre- 
posterous. I had honestly paid the proprietor of the 
soil, and should pay nobody else. The wah-wah 
ended, therefore, in my resolutely declining to have 
anything to do with him till he desisted from his 



PREPARING POR DEFENCE. 127 

threats and drew off his warriors. I forthwith 
ordered the Indians out of our log-house, and 
motioning them to keep beyond the clearance- 
ground, if they did not want to be shot, I retired 
to prepare for defence in the event of things still 
coming to the worst. 

" Of course Skid-a-ga-tees was un con vincible. We 
had a restless night consequently, taking it turn- 
about to walk round the house, lest the Indians should 
attempt to set fire to it. In one of my turns as 
watchman, I spied a Cape St. James Indian in the 
very act of drawing his revolver, with his pair of 
gleaming eyes fixed upon me. I had previously 
suspected the fellow, having observed him skulking 
for some time among the trees. On my complaining 
to his chief, who happened to be near at hand on 
the island, I had been coolly told that he was a little 
' foolish.' Wise or foolish, he had killed a white down 
at Victoria. As, then, such a man could not be left 
at large armed, I just went and put a stopper on his 
villany by taking his revolver from him, and punch- 
ing him well in the ribs. 

" Thus our position was one of no small danger. 
But we had counted on these emergencies in coming; 
and, after all, they were not really greater than what 



128 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

commonly fall to the lot of the pioneers of civiliza- 
tion. 

" The next day we found that Skid-a-ga-tees, 
though he would not leave, had drawn off most of 
his fighting men. This was to some extent a triumph. 
In the afternoon, while calculating our chances, we 
had the pleasure to see two huge canoes, choke-full of 
Indians of the Cum-she-was tribe, paddle swiftly 
into the bay. Union Jacks were flying at the bows 
of each canoe, in order to intimate to us the approach 
of our friends. The Cum-she-was had heard that the 
Skid-a-ga-tees had come down to massacre us. So 
they made all haste to our assistance. And right 
welcome it proved. 

" The new arrivals were decked out in tip-top war 
style : that is to say, both males and females — a 
goodly number of the latter being in the company to 
do the screeching business— had their bodies painted 
a shiny black, and their hair thoroughly greased and 
well sprinkled over with the fine breast-feathers of 
the goose. 

" However, no attack on the Skid-a-ga-tees was 
intended. The Cum-she-was, seeing how matters 
stood with us, simply wished to demonstrate what 
they could and would do in case of need. So they 



CHIEE CUM-SHE-WAS. 129 

landed, and treated me to a war serenade, females as 
well as males dancing frantically to wild music. I 
made them a few presents, after which they paddled 
off again, round Burnaby Head to Silver Island, to 
meet their chief, for a distribution of the blankets 
and tobacco which had been recently sent him from 
one of the old Hudson's Bay Forts, in barter for furs. 
" Naturally enough this interchange of compliments 
did not by any means please our enemies, the 
Skid-a-ga-tees ; and the following day, some of their 
warriors having returned, they were about to give 
us unmistakeable proof of their vexation, when 
suddenly Cum-she-was himself, accompanied by a 
host of his people, came paddling like mad round the 
headland. Fierce were the looks of Skid-a-ga-tees 
when he beheld me feasting Cum-she-was and his 
pretty papoose (daughter) upon biscuits, slap-jacks 
(pancakes), and sweet molasses. 'This is coming it 
rather strong,' seemed to be his reflection, if not 
in these identical terms, at least in their Indian 
synonyms. It was our crisis with Skid-a-ga-tees. 
Finding the bullying and robbery speculation not to 
answer, or possibly remembering that, but for his 
treacherous misconduct, he too would have been 
included in the feast, he very prudently took time to 

K 



130 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

consider his position, the consequence being a gradual 
relapse on both sides into our former amicable 
relations. 

" But I must digress a moment to cull from 
my Diary another incident, which also well-nigh 
brought all my explorations to a premature end. 

" Fortified by the presence of the Cum-she-was, I 
resumed work as before. Crossing over to Burnaby 
Island, I began to trace up the course of the main 
copper-lode, and to my surprise found it outcropping 
extensively and well defined. Upon the strength of 
this, and likewise for the sake of convenience and eco- 
nomy, the 'lay' of the land rendering Burnaby Island 
much more approachable than Skincuttle, I resolved 
to choose Burnaby as the site of our main shaft, chief 
works, and head residence. The men, then, having 
been transferred from one islet to the other, were 
soon engaged in building a new and larger log-house, 
workshops, and adjuncts. But the transfer of our 
provisions, implements, and the rest, had still to be 
effected. This job, with merely what help my cook, 
a little Frenchman, could afford me, I took entirely 
on myself. So, paddling together across to Skincuttle, 
we first of all collected timber sufficient to construct 
a raft, upon which we then piled up everything be- 



A RAFT-ADVENTURE. 131 

longing to us. Attaching the raft by a rope to our 
canoe, we essayed to recross the strait. Now I know 
from experience that rafting in the rapids of the 
river St. Lawrence, though often attended with danger 
to the raft, is rarely dangerous to the raftsman, who, 
in the event of his raft going to pieces, will generally 
jump on to a single spar and land himself safe on 
either shore. It becomes a totally different affair, 
however, in a strait closely communicating with the 
ocean, whither a strong current threatens every instant 
to carry you out, whilst only one shore protects 
you, and broken islets on the other serve but to 
intensify the strength of the current. Such was the 
Hix. in which the cook and myself found ourselves. 
Never shall I forget that fearful day's work. First 
I tried a series of indeterminate noises, hoping to be 
heard above the wind on Burnaby Island. Then, I 
am sorry to say, I waxed wroth and swore. Our 
situation not improving, I shouted through my hands 
with all my might. But again, as truth obliges me 
to record, I indulged worse than ever in oaths and 
curses, adding a slight dash of blasphemy. All was 
vain and vexatious. Meanwhile, both the paddling 
and the steering devolved upon me alone, the French- 
man showing hardly any strength, and less snese. 

k2 



132 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

In the middle of the whole thing, what should we see 
on Burnaby but our companions gathered together in 
an agony of despair, down by the water side? And 
well might they be agonized, for they had no canoe 
to aid us, and on the raft was every atom of our 
provisions. Away we went, drifting with the current. 
One solitary chance remained, namely, to try by a 
supreme effort to gain Rock Island, the ledge of 
rocks already mentioned, lying nearly midway be- 
tween Skin cuttle and Burnaby, and covered over 
at high tide. Fortunately, it was now low tide. 
Wherefore, summoning our last energies to the task, 
we paddled towards the ledge, nervously and deftly, 
till, after a prolonged struggle, I was enabled to 
scramble on to the rocks, and to hold the raft, whilst 
my Frenchman got into our light canoe and made 
the best of his way to Burnaby, in order to bring off 
some men to my relief. It so chanced that all the 
Indians on Burnaby Island had gone in the morning 
on a predatory excursion; otherwise our companions 
would have borrowed one of their canoes, and have 
fetched us sooner. Under the circumstances, thank- 
ful indeed were we to reach our destination at length, 
though it had cost us seven hours of terrible mental 
anguish, and of the severest bodily exertion that I 



TRANSFER TO BURNABY ISLAND. 133 

ever went through in my life, or that probably any 
other human being ever encountered either." 

This, however, completed our transfer to a locality 
which promised to be much more effective as a basis 
of operations, and also a more permanent home. 



134 



CHAPTER X. 

MISS SEJD-A-GA-TEES AND HER PAPA — QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDERS 
EAR- IN ADVANCE OE MR. DARWIN — SKID-A-GA-TEES AGAIN — PRO- 
PITIATORY SACRIFICE TO HIM — ETERNAL FRIENDSHIP — "WINTER IN 
CAMP — STORIES BY THE CAMP FIRESIDE — NORTH LATITUDE STORMS — 
TOWARDS THE INTERIOR — PANCAKES. 

I think it was the very day after our sea adventure, 
that the daughter of Skid-a-ga-tees and my friend on 
board the Rebecca, walked up to where we were all 
working at the new log-house, and reported that 
her papa had built his ranche (house) within a mile 
of ours, and had now come to reside there. 

A pleasant neighbour, in good sooth. 

The pride of the Skid-a-ga-tees tribe was too great 
to endure self-humiliation. But the present announce- 
ment signified that their chief wished to make friends. 
" He would have sent men to help in the building," 
said the dusky young lady, magniloquently, "if it 
had not been for a promontory which so effectually 
separated our encampment from his as to have kept 
him, till just then, in a state of utter ignorance as 
to our transmigration to Burnaby Island." 



MISS SKID-A-GA-TEES. 135 

At this my Californian workman developed an 
extraordinary capacity for winking, the French 
cookie tittered and giggled himself into convulsions, 
whilst a sarcastic Englishman of our party suggested 
that the murderous old chief might turn out to be 
sweetly innocent after all. To me the story certainly 
sounded " very like a whale :" but I nevertheless 
considered the more prudent course would be to 
keep my own counsel from the wily Miss Skid-a-ga- 
tees. " It was the chief's intention,'' she officially 
declared, a to pay me a visit the same evening;" 
and meantime, in token of friendliness, she " begged 
leave to caution us against a bear which had been 
seen sniffing about the island." 

Immediately I took my Enfield rifle, and sallied 
forth in search of the animal. I remember it oc- 
curred to me that there was positively little 
choice between the society of human savages and 
the proximity of wild beasts. If anything, the latter 
are preferable : for a bear at least does not pretend 
to be your friend whilst in reality your foe. 

As I could not come upon this individual wild 
beast, I concluded that his bearship had reconsidered 
his project of hunting without a licence, and had 
probably taken himself off to one of the surrounding 



136 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

islets. But noticing a superannuated bear-track, I 
followed it up and discovered an Indian trap for 
bears, of such ingenious contrivance that I stopped 
and sketched it. In another respect, too, my bear- 
chase was not time wasted, inasmuch as it led me 
to stumble upon a new vein of copper, which I 
carefully marked and mapped out. My rifle being 
still loaded, I emptied it on the way back, and 
brought down a splendid specimen of the native crow 
(corvus caurinus), called Mail-kula-kutta by the Indians. 
The Queen Charlotte Indians hold views, on the sub- 
ject of their aboriginal ancestry, decidedly in advance 
of the Darwinian theory; for their descent from the 
crows is quite gravely affirmed and steadfastly main- 
tained. Hence they never will kill one, and are 
always annoyed, not to say angry, should we whites, 
driven to desperation by the crow-nests on every 
side of us, attempt to destroy them. This idea like- 
wise accounts for the coats of black paint with which 
young and old in all those tribes constantly besmear 
themselves. The crow- like colour affectionately 
reminds the Indians of their reputed forefathers, and 
thus preserves the national tradition. Mr. Darwin 
and his disciples are scarcely so consistent or devo- 
tional. 






THE CHIEF AND THE COOK. * 137 

I found my men collected round the log-house door, 
in a state of excitement. Skid-a-ga-tees, having 
duly arrived to pay me the promised visit of re- 
conciliation, had seated himself very independently 
on one of the lower bunks. Our cook had been 
foolish enough to resent this as a liberty, and 
had told my visitor somewhat sharply to stand 
aside. Upon which the latter, instead of obeying, 
had mounted on to the bunk and begun an 
indignant wah-wah. The cook had then lost his 
temper, pulled the chief down, and like a madman 
kicked him in the chest. But the chief had struck 
back at his antagonist so cleverly with a long knife, 
that, but for a prompt parry from the Californian, 
the blow must have proved fatal to the Frenchman. 
However, the wrath of old Skid-a-ga-tees had now 
been fairly aroused. And yet to have contended 
against those overwhelming odds would have exposed 
him to certain defeat. He had therefore darted out 
of the house and away to his camp, in order to raise 
his whole tribe and avenge the insult. 

Such was the agreeable prospect which greeted me 
on my return from my abortive bear-hunt. I saw 
at a glance, that we had not a moment to lose. 
Our sole hope lay in his accepting the apology 



138 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

which, as his clear right, I at once resolved to make 
him. But the procedure was not so easy, considering 
my total ignorance of his peculiar dialect. When 
then I went over alone to his camp, I hardly dare to 
think what might have befallen me if Miss Skid-a- 
ga-tees had not compassionately undertaken to in- 
terpret. 

As I expected, the old chief was in a towering 
passion, and, the instant he caught sight of me 
entering his log-house, he brandished the same long 
knife in my face, and urged his fellows to go down 
to our camp and slaughter us, one and all. So the 
daughter told me. I waited in patience until he 
had calmed sufficiently to listen to my explanation. 
But " why could I not interfere, now at least ?" he 
argued. I replied that, even " if my man had killed 
him, I was powerless to punish the criminal myself, 
such matters, according to the laws of the whites, 
being dealt with only at Victoria." Hearing that, 
he laughed contemptuously, and said he could not 
understand it. No doubt it did seem unaccountable 
to him that I, although a chief amongst my men, 
should not possess the power of life and death over 
them. But ultimately, on my pledging my word to 
send the cook back to Victoria in the first provision- 



WINTER EVENINGS. 139 

vessel that came to us, and have him there adequately 
punished, he vouchsafed to be mollified. 

I then offered a propitiatory sacrifice in the like- 
ness of a plug of tobacco, whereupon the redoubtable 
Skid-a-ga-tees and I once more vowed eternal friend- 
ship ; and in testimony thereof he sent me down next 
day a large halibut weighing over a hundred pounds. 

My narrative has now reached a point when sum- 
marizing becomes a necessity. We were on the 
verge of Winter. But two Winters on Queen Char- 
lotte Islands being before me, I shall only say of this 
one, that the Indians ceased for the present to molest 
us, and that, having partly received from Victoria 
and partly laid in ourselves a fair stock of provisions, 
we kept to work with a will at the copper-shaft 
which we had sunk near our log-house on Burnaby 
Island. 

If it had not been for the hardworking spirit of 
my men, winter-time would have hung with awful 
heaviness upon our hands. Occasionally we varied 
the week's labour by means of a day's shooting, 
or, when the snow covered the ground, by an attempt 
at a bear-hunt, but never, in either case, with any 
noteworthy success. We had no greater alleviation 
than to sit together, after the burden of the day 



140 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

was over, round the. log-house fire, whilst one man 
cleaned our guns and revolvers, another sharpened 
our tools, a third washed our clothes, a fourth set our 
little pantry to rights, and each took his turn in spin- 
ning yarns of his adventures and hair-breadth escapes. 

One man, who had before been my travelling- com- 
panion through Canada, was a host in himself, as 
regards this kind of story-telling. Many an hour of 
a darksome evening did he thus beguile for us. Some 
of his stories equalled those of the immortal Baron 
Miinchhausen. With a view of showing how we 
pioneers contrived to get through the long Winter 
hours, when we could do no outdoor work, I shall 
here give a sample or two of tales he used to tell 
around our blazing camp-fire : — 

" When I was working at getting out timber, near 
Hudson's Bay," he began, one evening, " I thought, 
having an idle day, that I would go to a small lake 
about two miles distant, and have a shot at some 
ducks. I took my rifle and a few bullets, for 1 never 
use small shot, and down I crept as quietly as a 
mouse, till I got within fifty yards of the bank. 
Seeing several hundred ducks on the opposite 
side, I raised my rifle to my shoulder, but found I 
could not shape the range enough in line to knock 



A CAMP STORY. 141 

off the heads of more than five or six. I therefore 
1 concluded' to try a favourite plan of mine, which 
would enable me to bag perhaps half the whole 
number. So back I went to the shanty, to leave my 
rifle, and to fetch my bag-net. In a few moments I 
had fastened the net round my waist, and was swim- 
ming across the lake to where the ducks were. Coming 
sufficiently near, I dived; but, instead of rising again 
to the surface, I dodged about a bit under water. Pre- 
sently, what should I see, just overhead, but a pair 
of yellow legs ? I pulled the legs down and stowed 
their owner comfortably away in my net. Finding I 
was in the right place, I swam about here and there, 
in the same manner, till I had filled the net with the 
owners of at least a dozen pair of yellow legs. 
Then I thought I would make for the surface. But, 
unfortunately, on my getting to the top of the water, 
the net turned out to be only half full, which gave 
the ducks plenty of room to spread their wings and 
fly up into the air. This I had not calculated on ; 
and when I had got a mile air-high, it struck me 
very forcibly that I was rather out of my latitude. 
So I drew my jack-knife across the net, and away 
flew the ducks, whilst I tumbled into the lake again, 
though somewhat more swiftly than I had mounted 



142 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

up. Such indeed was the velocity with which I now 
descended, that I went slap down to the bottom of 
the lake, a mile deep in that particular spot, and sank 
to my chin in a bed of tough clay, where I stuck hard 
and fast, in spite of most desperate efforts to regain 
my liberty." 

" Snakes and alligators !" burst in our Californian, 
" I guess that's not trew, or yer wouldn't be here to 
tell the tale." 

" Let me finish," rejoined my imperturbable Cana- 
dian friend. " The fact was," he continued, "that, 
not relishing my position, I at last went back to 
the shanty, brought down a shovel, and dug myself 
out," 

Roars of laughter followed, after which he of 
California said the Canadian's story " flogged creation, 
that it did." There could be little doubt about it. 

On another occasion, we were treated to this : — 

" I was once ' trapping' in the Red River Settle- 
ment," said my Canadian, " when it occurred to me 
that I might as well improve the occasion by 
trapping eels also, and upon a patent principle of my 
own invention. I had a square box made, which I 
divided into two compartments. These I caused to 
communicate one with the other by metal tubes, 



ANOTHER CAMP STORY. 143 

each a size smaller than the average eel, the tubes, 
too, having sharpened edges. The box was open at 
one end, and of such a measurement that it exactly- 
fitted into one of those ' shuts ' which carry off the 
surplus waters where the lakes are dammed up. 
Well, this is the way it acted. The eels would come 
through the c shuts/ and into the first compartment, 
and, perceiving the tube-holes, would dart through 
them into the second, leaving their skins behind. 
Large quantities of valuable eel-skins were thus 
placed at my disposal every week. But when the 
season was over, I left my box still there; and 
returning next year, I found the first compartment 
full of beautiful skins, and the second full of eels, 
which had passed through the tubes, but each eel 
with a new skin. It was a profitable investment, 
was my patent box, I do assure you." 

" Darn my skroikes !" exclaimed our Californian 3 
thumping the bench with his fist, whilst a gurgle 
of approval passed round the convivial circle. Not 
being conversant with the Californian language, I am 
unable to explain in what the process of darning 
ones skroikes precisely consists. But it may be taken 
to denote some high degree of eulogium, for im- 
mediatelv two other Americans vociferated for an 



144 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

extra glass of grog to toast the Canadian, in which 
sentiment I heartily concurred. 

I revert to my Diary : — 

"March l&th, 1863. — A few mosquitoes have put 
in an appearance. Hence we know to a cer- 
tainty that summer is nigh. These islands are freer 
than most woody countries from the mosquito- 
plague, the reason being the comparative absence of 
swampy soil. Swamps, combined with heat, not only 
nourish mosquitoes, but develop them daily into life 
from decomposed vegetation." 

" 20th. — This morning I paid a visit to old Skid-a- 
ga-tees. By great care I have managed to keep friends 
with him ail the Winter through. The principal object 
of my visit to-day was to see a sick Indian, who lay 
dangerously ill with an ulcerated throat. I gave the 
man doses of ice, to use as a gargle, and made him 
stick to it for six hours. Before I left last night, he 
was as well as ever." 

" 2Sth, — I have just returned from an excursion, 
a comfortless though not altogether a useless one, 
and my first this year. 

" In defiance of a high sea, I ventured out in 
my canoe to try to finish the prospecting, which 
I had commenced last fall (Autumn), in Sockalee 



A NIGHT IN THE OPEN AIR. 145 

Harbour, at the mouth of the Burnaby Straits, almost 
due north of our camp. I took with me two expert 
Indians. But this canoe is small, only five feet by 
four inches — in fact, no larger than an ancient British 
coracle. I had in view to discover some cross-veins 
of copper, if possible. Such however was the state 
of the sea that we soon drifted off to westward, 
and were glad enough to be able to make for the 
nearest shore. It was on the other side of our 
Western Headland, and although the beautiful little 
harbour or cove where we now landed, lay within two 
miles of us, I had never been into it before. I spied 
a blue jay flying about near the beach, and, as this 
was the first bird of the species I had seen on Queen 
Charlotte Islands, I named the place Blue Jay 
Harbour. Evidently it would have been impossible, 
in such a sea, to weather the headland towards home. 
I therefore made up my mind to encamp under a 
huge cedar-tree; but having forgotten to bring 
matches, I sent an Indian into the bush to procure 
the requisite tinder (dead rotten wood), by means of 
which we quickly kindled a brisk fire, roasted 
our potatoes, and toasted some dried fish we had 
with us. 

" It will ever remind me of this benign climate, 

L 



1 



146 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

to think how, on a night in March, even while stormy 
winds raged, I was not merely induced to take my 
night's rest in the open air, as I did beneath the out- 
spread branches of that cedar, but was able next 
morning to rise from sleep, as unharmed and re- 
freshed as if I had been in bed. 

u And yet the depredations of the storm were 
wonderful to look at. During the night hundreds of 
trees had been blown down, and now were strewn 
high and dry along the beach. 

"To a solitary civilized being, the storms in 
these northern latitudes always have a peculiar 
grandeur. A solitude seems to reign here, and 
even at Victoria, which goes home to the heart of 
the stranger from Europe, and fills him with deso- 
lation. Not that a pioneer's life is dull, for there 
are subjects in plenty to engage his attention ; but 
that every now and again a feeling of loneliness 
creeps over him, such as no pen or tongue can 
portray. It makes him mark and cling to the 
glories of nature with tenfold ardour. But hence, 
too, he views with tenfold sensitiveness the sight of 
those glories battling furiously together. 

" After breakfast we set off in the direction of 
a high mountain, situated in the interior of the 



INTO THE INTERIOR. 147 

island, intending, if possible, to ascend to the 
summit, and secure one of the many hundreds of 
eagles' nests which I could plainly discern through 
my field-glass. Though the distance to the base 
of the mountain was only about three miles, so 
dense a bush separated us from it, that we 'found it 
absolutely impracticable to proceed more than two. 
Indeed, the last half-mile I performed alone, my 
Indians having given it up as "unco uncanny," to 
borrow a phrase from yonside the Tweed. They 
aver that I penetrated into the interior further 
than any Indian has ever gone. This does not 
surprise me, considering their natural dislike to 
exertion of any kind. They plead in excuse that 
the game is too scarce, and the under-bush too 
obstructive and dangerous, to offer them sufficient 
inducement. As I was forced to go back myself, I 
must admit their plea to be a reasonable one. 

"About noon, the sea having calmed a little, we 
resumed our voyage of discovery in the tiny canoe. 
In an hour or so we put into another pretty harbour, 
where I made out a vein of crystallized limestone, 
the only pure limestone I had seen in this geological 
section. The vein was four feet wide, and traceable 
for a distance of 150 feet, from W.N.W. to E.S.E. 

l 2 



148 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

Paddling then around the land, I found it was an 
island, not much less than twelve miles in circum- 
ference, I bestowed the name of " Malcolm" upon it, 
in honour of a friend in Canada. Observing smoke 
to proceed from an adjacent island, we paddled over 
to it, a distance of some four miles. Time failed me 
to examine the interior, even if the chaos and 
tangle had allowed me ; but by the smoke and the 
strong smell of sulphur prevailing, I judged that 
Volcanic Island would not be a misnomer to give it. 

" During the last two days we three explorers have 
consumed quite sixty pounds weight of flour, besides 
other provisions. These Indians think nothing of 
devouring their ten pounds each at a meal, particu- 
larly if the flour be made up in the form of pan- 
cakes. Catering for Indians comes expensive." 

I may here note that the commissariat difficulty 
referred to in my Diary was shortly after obviated 
by another smart notion, for which we were again 
indebted to the genius of our Californian. 
Amongst the stores we had a large cask of tallow, 
such as is used in rolling cartridges, or in greasing 
tools. I took a quantity of this with me, when I 
next went out to explore, and fried the pancakes in 
it instead of in butter. Of course I took care to 



PANCAKES. 149 

cook the first pancake without tallow, slipping in a 
piece of butter on the sly for myself. The Indians 
gobbled up their tallowed pancakes with infinite 
gusto. But ever after one pancake apiece amply 
sufficed to them. And rare fun it was to see their 
amazement and vexation at not being able to accom- 
modate more than that at a time, in spite of their 
undiminished appetites. 

After this brief exploration the copper-works on 
Burnaby Island kept me too closely occupied to 
allow of another absence for some while to come. 
All went on much as usual till the latter end of 
August, when our camp and that of our ally Skid- 
a-ga-tees were thrown into commotion by the report 
of an invasion to be expected from a neighbouring 
tribe, booty being their undisguised motive. Though 
we quickly put ourselves into a state of defence, it 
is hard to say what might have been the result but 
for the mos't opportune arrival of the little schooner 
Rebecca, the mere sight of which ludicrously changed 
our would-be foes into pretended friends. 

The Rebecca was on her way back from the 
Stickeen River in Russian America, and had on 
board an old Canadian friend of mine, a Mr Car- 
michael, who also was returning from the gold-mines 



150 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

in those parts, having lost all his money, and likewise 
his health, not to mention a narrow escape with his 
life from hostile Indians. As the nephew of Mr. 
Hogan, proprietor of the famed St. Lawrence Hall 
Hotel, in Montreal, my friend had gone out innuen- 
tially recommended, fully stocked, and well in funds. 
Few men, therefore, could be better qualified to pass 
an opinion on the prospect afforded by the Stickeen 
River. It is here enough to recount that he had left 
the gold-mines with the determination of never going 
back to them. 

Fearing that, as soon as the Rebecca departed, I 
should again have trouble from the Indians, I osten- 
tatiously despatched a letter to the Governor of 
British Columbia, requesting the presence of a gun- 
boat. The mere fact of this request served to pro- 
tect us for the nonce. 



151 



CHAPTER XI. 

PLOTTING INDIANS — THE GUNBOAT " HECATE" — SHELLING — OPINIONS ON 
THE " SMOKE-SHIP" — KLTJE ON BOARD THE " HECATE" — THE " REBECCA " 
HEAVES IN SIGHT — EIRING SKINCTJTTLE — PROSPECTING — COPPER-MINE 
ON BURNABY ISLAND — BACK TO VICTORIA BY THE "OUTSIDE PAS- 
SAGE" — REPORT TO THE MINING COMPANY. 

Neaely a month elapsed before I received any 
answer to my request. Meantime, our pugnacious 
neighbours, emboldened by the delay, sent a small 
"army of observation" over to Burnaby Island to 
watch as, and, if occasion offered, to threaten us. 

Very early in the morning of September 19 th, 
I noticed a great stir in their camp ; and ere long 
those who had been plotting our total destruction 
came up to the log-house, laden with skins, furs, and 
fish, and loudly proclaiming their amicable senti- 
ments towards the white man. 

Nothing in the Indian character used to astonish 
me so much as its shallowness. The Indians are 
wonderfully acute in reading other people's actions ; 
and hence one would expect them to be less clumsy 



152 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

in dissimulation. Here they were, however, palpably 
false and hostile to the backbone, and yet thinking 
to make me believe in their professions of friendship 
and truthfulness by means of a few transparent 
overtures. But does not a like trait characterize 
the savages one meets with now and then at home? 

I could not restrain a laugh at the blatant impos- 
ture, especially as, happening to look through my 
glass across to the enemy's camp, I saw they were 
actually breaking up and beginning to move. Upon 
which the members of the deputation laughed too. 
All this assured me that some external cause must 
be operating in our behalf. 

My men and I were still balancing probabilities, 
when suddenly the sound of heavy guns in the far 
distance solved every doubt; and at the same 
moment a friendly Siwash (one of the Skid-a-ga-tees 
tribe) came running over the promontory to an- 
nounce that a " smoke-vessel" was in sight. Our 
double-faced enemies had been observing it from 
early dawn. 

Without loss of time I mounted to an eminence 
above our camp, and there, plain enough in the 
offing, was an English man-of-war. I immediately 
put off to her in a canoe. She proved to be 



VISIT OF THE "HECATE. 153 

H.M.'s gunboat Hecate, and by nine o'clock a.m. 
I had the satisfaction of piloting the welcome 
gunboat into a safe anchorage opposite our mines, 
and not more than a quarter of a mile from our 
log-house. 

The following is in my Diary : — 

" September 19th. — Took the obstreperous chiefs 
before the commanding officer of the Hecate, who 
gave them clearly to understand, through an inter- 
preter, that if they annoyed us again in any way 
whatsoever he would at once return and burn them 
out of home and hearth, and that they must deliver 
up all the articles they had stolen from us. This 
action on the part of the Governor will do an incal- 
culable amount of good. It makes us feel a deeper 
pride in our country, and revives the patriotism 
which too long absence from home is apt to enfeeble. 
The officers very obliging, offering to supply any- 
thing we might require. I was glad of two dozen 
clay pipes, and a bundle of English newspapers." 

Exactly at five o'clock that afternoon the Hecate got 
up her steam again and departed, after having fired 
a good many shells during the day from her largest 
gun, as a salutary warning to the natives. 

For quite a week afterwards Indians of all tribes 



154 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

continued to loaf about near our log-house, holding 
lively conversations with us in reference to the gun- 
boat. The general opinion amongst them was that 
it would be easy to destroy her by " setting fire to 
her powder-magazine ;" but when pressed as to some 
practical plan for getting at the magazine, they were 
no more able to answer than were the respected 
nurses of our infant years when we used to question 
them as to the best method of putting salt on a bird's 
tail. What most of all puzzled the Indians was to 
understand how on earth " the same gun could fire 
two shots at once," by which they meant the report 
on the shell being discharged, and the bursting of 
the shell a few moments after on the ground. 

Candour obliges me to state that, notwithstanding 
his friendliness in the main, Klue turned out more or 
less of a rascal in the petty larceny line. For this I 
had him up on board the Hecate, when he promised 
her commander to restore a lot of implements he had 
stolen, or had allowed to be stolen, from our stores. 
He never fulfilled his promise, which, judging by his 
subsequent manner in the Hecate, I expected would be 
the case. 

Klue, I remember, came on deck in a nice stew; 
but as soon as he found that it was to be all talk, and 



KLUE ON BOARD THE " HECATE." 155 

no hanging or shooting, he plucked up courage and 
followed me about the ship wherever I went. Ob- 
serving two young ladies aft, he inquired their names. 
Not knowing them myself at the time, I replied that 
they were the daughters of some English gentleman 
of rank, upon which he instantly proposed to pur- 
chase one, offering " two hundred blankets " down. 
I informed him that English ladies were not exchange- 
able for " goods." He was greatly surprised to hear 
it, and terribly vexed when, later, I explained our 
custom in this matter more fully. " Why, then, do 
your white men come and buy our daughters?" he 
indignantly exclaimed. And, it must be owned, I 
was as terribly at a loss how to answer him. The 
Indian custom is to take a woman to wife for a 
month on trial, the usual price asked for a chief's 
daughter being three blankets. In the event of the 
damsel not proving a desirable acquisition, she may 
be sent back within the month. Her relations then 
return the blankets. It is sad to know that this 
degrading traffic has been taken advantage of, to an 
unlimited extent, by the Californian traders who 
frequent the shores of the North Pacific. I did not 
wonder, therefore, at Klue's indignation on his dis- 
covering the true bearings of their practice. I never 



156 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

heard of his particular tribe having any such appli- 
cations while I resided on Queen Charlotte Islands. 
But I strongly suspect that, should a Californian ever 
again seek a wife among them, Klue will insist on 
his price of two hundred blankets, if he does not give 
his unsuspecting applicant the length of his knife. 

Although the Hecate stayed but one day, she left 
a most wdiolesome impression. For a long time 
after her visit, whenever the Indians showed a dis- 
position to be saucy, we had only to glance with a 
smile towards the north-west (the direction in which 
the gunboat steamed off), and their bodies would 
quake from head to foot, whilst they rolled their eye- 
oalls wildly. 

On the Saturday following the Hecate's visit, 
the schooner Rebecca hove in sight. As the rain 
descended in torrents all that day and the next, I 
advised her lying-to in Harriet Harbour, which she 
did till Monday, the 29th of September, when, the 
weather having cleared, she unloaded our shipment 
of stores, and sailed the same evening for Stickeen 
River, with orders to call again on her return, in 
order to convey me down to Victoria. 

I make note here of a melancholy accident which 
happened in the Rebecca, on her way up from the 



A SEA-MISADVENTURE. 157 

capital. On board of her was a certain Mr. Wigham, 
a native of London, and for years a speculator in 
Chilian and Peruvian mines. Our company had 
appointed him to come and assist me in working 
out my discoveries. The Rebecca having made the 
Inside Passage on this occasion, she was off the 
North Bentinck Arm, above Queen Charlotte Sound, 
when, one stormy night, Mr. Wigham tried to take 
an observation of the Polar Star. While engaged in 
doing this, the schooner's boom swung round heavily, 
and, striking him on the head, sent him overboard. 
In such weather, at night, his body could not of 
course be recovered. Now the schooner had left 
Victoria a week previous to the gunboat; and as 
the gunboat was ordered to call at our place before 
proceeding to Stickeen River, its commander had 
kindly given Mr. Wigham's daughters their passage. 
These were the young English ladies who had 
excited the Indian chief's curiosity in the gun-room 
of the Hecate. But the Misses Wigham, finding the 
Rebecca had not yet reached us, decided to go on to 
Stickeen in the gunboat trusting to return by the 
schooner, after she too should have reached Stickeen. 
The Hecate could not wait, however; and they 
were consequently forced to go back all the way to 



158 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

Victoria, in ignorance of their poor father's death. 
Some few weeks later the duty devolved upon me 
of imparting to them the fatal news which made 
them orphans and absolutely penniless in a distant 
land. 

I should now mention that, despite our migration 
to Burnaby Island in the foregoing Autumn, we had 
so far by no means forsaken Skincuttle. We paddled 
across continually; and a good relay of workmen 
having been sent up to me in the Spring from 
Victoria, I detached a party to Skincuttle, and 
kept them there all the summer. But that shaft did 
not repay the trouble and expense. I had been 
gradually determining to abandon it altogether, when 
an outbreak of the small-pox among the Indians 
brought things to a head. Several died, one of whom 
was a handy fellow, called " Indian George" by my 
men, and another, a pretty little Klootchman girl. 
Seeing these two were dying, the Indians strangled 
them, and immediately after struck their filthy 
camp on Skincuttle, making off in a body, and 
leaving us to bury their dead, if we chose to perform 
that office. This we did, to prevent the further spread 
of the small-pox. My foreman and I then set fire to 
the Indian huts and to the bush wood, and a fierce 



SKINCUTTLE EVACUATED. 159 

gale of wind beginning to blow at the same moment, 
the whole of Skincuttle Island was soon one sheet of 
flame. Not a stick would have been left on any part 
of it, if a dense cumulus of water, which we per- 
ceived to be gathering overhead, had not burst 
open of a sudden, and poured down such a flood 
as I never beheld, before or since, in my life- 
time. The rain lasted without the slightest intermis- 
sion or diminution for thirty-four hours, almost 
to a minute. Thus, by the action of two powerful 
elements, did poor Skincuttle receive its purifi- 
cation. 

These incidents finally disgusted me with our 
pristine settlement, and calculating that there was 
nothing further of interest to detain us on the islet, 
I ordered its total evacuation. 

I had lately been extensively engaged in prospect- 
ing Burnaby Island; and my researches having 
resulted in the discovery of what I believed to be 
the " lead" of the copper-ore, close down by the 
shore, I had set a number of men to work upon it. 
The storm interrupted their operations ; but when, 
on the weather clearing, we arrived with our be- 
longings from Skincuttle, the first sight which 
rewarded me for my venture was the " foot and 



160 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

hanging wall" of the vein splendidly defined. It 
had just been opened. 

Early in the day of October 14th, the Rebecca 
once more made her expected appearance. As I 
had now important news for the shareholders 
of our Company, I resolved to return to Victoria in 
the schooner ; and accordingly, putting my foreman 
in charge, I went on board in the afternoon, upon 
which Captain Macalmond weighed anchor at once. 
He agreed, very sensibly, to take the Outside Passage, 
hoping to get down with fair winds in about three 
days. In this, however, we were disappointed. 

After clearing Cape St. James, a smart breeze 
sprung up. The Rebecca then crowded on all sail, 
which sent her cutting through the water at the rate 
of eleven knots an hour. But it seemed too good to 
last. By sunrise next morning she was scudding 
before the wind with bare poles, whilst the sea 
dashed incessantly over her bows. Towards evening 
another change came on. The wind fell, but not the 
sea, which continued to roll in huge volumes, pitching 
and tossing our dapper little schooner about like a 
shuttlecock, the " dead reckoning" showing that she 
made only half a knot to the hour. Who can describe 
the mortification which is the lot of the pioneer 



i 



IN THE TROUGH OF THE SEA. 161 

when, after a prolonged absence amongst savages, he 
approaches the haven and yet cannot feel sure of 
ever reaching it ? As we lay tumbling in the trough 
of this wide sea, I could not but recall the fate 
of poor Mr. Wigham, hardly a month previous. 
What if our frail craft were to capsize, and to 
consign us all to make food for the fishes? Would 
anybody be one whit the wiser, until weeks, or 
almost months, after our friends began to miss us? 
To know this feeling fully, one must have found 
oneself within a day's steam of such a capital as 
Victoria, and yet have had to take one's chance of 
wind and waves, sometimes by the help of the tide 
making a few knots, but often er losing sea-way to 
double the distance. The sole comfort derivable from 
our position was that, for two days, we could see no 
less than four other trading vessels labouring under 
the same difficulties as ourselves. Still not precisely 
the same ; for, our craft being small and our Captain 
expert, we generally contrived to ground well in- 
shore, and hauling off with the returning tide, 
so gain a few miles in advance of the other 
ships. 

At length, on Sunday morning, October the 19th, 
we sailed with a fair wind up the Straits of San 

M 



162 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

Juan de Fuca, and, rounding the Headland, dropped 
anchor in Victoria Harbour. 

My arrival formed quite an event in the capital, not 
only because most of the leading merchants had now 
taken a pecuniary interest in my expedition, but 
because I was the first white man who had dared to 
go and live amongst the hostile Indians of Queen 
Charlotte Islands, or the Great Northern Indians, as 
some call them. 

I need perhaps scarcely say that the primary con- 
sideration for me was a change of clothing, a civilized 
wash, and a " square meal." Nobody who has not ex- 
perienced what it is to be deprived of the refinements 
of life can rightly conceive the joy of regaining them. 
When these invigorating tonics had been applied to 
my system I placed myself at the disposition of nume- 
rous old friends, and as many new ones, to answer 
their perplexing questions about the Indians, about 
the aspect and capabilities of Queen Charlotte Islands, 
and particularly about the promise of the country in 
mineral products. It required no little patience to 
satisfy such demands on my time and temper, to say 
nothing of the bodily constitution requisite to stand 
all the "brandy smashes" and bottles of champagne 
of which I had perforce to partake in my own honour. 






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RECEPTION AT VICTORIA. 163 

By dint of a studied personal restraint, however, I 
got through my allotted task ; so that, having devoted 
some few days to a most necessary rest, and employed 
the remainder in purchasing provisions, clothes, 
medicine, and ammunition, I was ready, before a 
week had elapsed, to charter another vessel to take 
me back to Burnaby Island. 

Here I cannot do better than insert the official 
Report which, on occasion of this visit to the capital, 
I addressed to our Company :* — 

" To the Directors of the Queen Charlotte Mining 
Company. 

"Victoria, Vancouver Island, Oct. 22, 1863. 

" Gentlemen, 

" The copper-mines are situated on several 
islands, the approximate position being in about 
lat. 52° 18' 00" North, long. 131° 07' 00" West. 
Though the time occupied by me in prospecting 
these islands has been very limited, I have come to 
the conclusion that the copper on Burnaby Island is 
the most promising hitherto discovered. There is a 
bluff of rock rising to the height of about 150 feet on 
the eastern extremity of Burnaby Island. Com- 



* The above Report is quoted by Mr. Macfie, in his work (p. 152) 

M 2 



164 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

mencing at the N.E. point of this bluff, at low-water 
mark, copper shows itself about one inch and a half 
in thickness. One half inch runs parallel with the 
level of the water for a distance of nine feet, mixed 
with a little spar, when it runs out. The remaining 
one inch then rises on an angle of 25° for the same 
distance, when it takes a horizontal course two feet 
above high-water mark towards the S.W., the strike 
being S. 35° W., with a dip W.N.W. 72°. Leaving 
these two threads and joining the main vein, as seen 
here, the copper gradually widens in the direction of 
the mainland. The length of this vein on the out- 
croppings is 200 feet, with an average thickness of 
sixteen inches on the surface or out-crop. The con- 
stituent (matrix or gangue) is composed of shorl, 
hornblend, garnets, and spar, presenting good gossan 
indications and two well-defined walls, the ' foot- 
walls ' being slate overlaid with a very hard dark 
green rock, the 'hanging-walls' proving the existence 
of a regular and defined vein of copper-ore. 

" The classes of ore to be looked for here are the 
yellow and grey sulphurates of copper, with the blue 
and green carbonates of copper, holding muriates and 
sulphurates of silver, with the purple and other 
classes of copper-ores. 



MINING REPORT. 165 

" It is needless for me to enter into a long state- 
ment as to the probability of finding workable copper 
on Skincuttle Island. There are many serious ob- 
jections to such a theory. The only use this island 
will be to us is to assist in determining the course of 
the c Champion Lead,' which must be towards the 
mainland, as the latter island is too far north, which 
the formation plainly shows. For this reason I con- 
sidered it a duty to the Company and myself to cease 
sinking the shaft on Skincuttle Island, for which I 
had bound myself by contract. 

" I have directed a set of men to cut a drift in the 
most promising situation yet discovered, which is on 
Burnaby Island, and with a few more men I shall be 
in a position to extract copper for the market next 
Spring. I have no hesitation in recommending the 
working of this vein, believing, as I do, that, in a com- 
mercial point of view, the result will be most satis- 
factory to all parties interested therein. The regu- 
larity of the formation of this vein, its extent, and 
promising character, as well as its very convenient 
proximity to water (it lies within eighty feet of deep 
water, at a point suitable for landing a shipment or 
anything required), will satisfy the most anxious. 

" From experience in mining for the last twelve 



166 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

years, I am confident that success will attend the 
working of this mine, provided it is carried on with 
energy and prudence. The mine so clearly possesses 
in itself all the elements of success, besides its con- 
venience of situation, that no doubt can be entertained 
but that its working will prove a sound satisfaction 
to every one concerned. 

" I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, 

" Yours faithfully, 

"Francis Poole, 

"Engineer to the Queen Charlotte Mining Company." 



167 



CHAPTER XII. 

BOUND FOR QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS AGAIN — UP THE " INSIDE PAS- 
SAGE " IN THE " LEONIDE" — THE GULP OF GEORGIA — COAST ON EITHER 

SIDE RUN AGROUND THE NORTH AND SODTH BENTINCK ARMS — 

NEW ABERDEEN — BELLA-COOLA RIVER — TAYLOR'S RANCHE — GETTING 
OUT TO SEA— THE BELLA-BELLAS — ACROSS TO QUEEN CHARLOTTE. 

It was not at all easy to procure a vessel for the 
purpose of conveying myself and two of my men, 
together with a suitable supply of provisions, back to 
the copper-mines. 

At length, however, a sloop named the Leonide, 
which had been advertised to sail to the North Ben- 
tinck Arm on the mainland, failing to obtain more 
than half her cargo, I chartered her to extend her 
trip across to our islands. 

The last moment had almost come, and the bargain 
was struck in a hurry. When, then, I went down to 
inspect the sloop, it rather staggered me to find her 
only twenty tons burden, twelve tons of which were 
already on board, whilst fifteen tons additional of 
our Company's stores had yet to be shipped, con- 



168 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

stituting a total of twenty-seven tons, to say nothing 
of the crew, passengers, and luggage. But we had 
to make the best of the bargain : for otherwise my 
men at the mines would have been wholly destitute 
of provisions. 

On the 24th of October, therefore, about nine o'clock 
p.m., we left Victoria Harbour, with quite seven 
tons weight more in the Leonides hold than she had 
any right to carry, and a very dangerous voyage be- 
fore us. It was no wonder that, upon anchoring in 
Nanaimo Harbour, opposite the well-known coal- 
mines,* we found our sloop nearly waterlogged, 
showing fully a foot of water on her main-deck, 
even in smooth water — a fair sample of trading 
appliances in a new country. 

The Leonids being bound in the first instance to 
the North Bentinck Arm, the Inside Passage was an 
imperative necessity. At the outset some idea may 
be formed of the vast difference between the two 
Passages, when I state that it took us three days 
and four nights to reach Nanaimo, whereas, in a good 
ship, the same period of time, by the Outside Passage, 
would have landed us at Queen Charlotte. 

* The Nanaimo mines yielded 40,833 tons of coal in the year 1869. 



THE GULF OF GEORGIA. 169 

In order to make clear how amply the facts bear 
out my comparison, I shall describe this voyage 
somewhat in detail. 

Despite our extraordinary over-freight, I had 
really no cause to disparage the sailing capacities of 
the Leonide. What we wanted was wind to drive us 
ahead against the vexatious tides, currents, and 
eddies which so markedly characterize the Inside 
Passage. 

Exactly at sunset of the 28th, a stiff but favourable 
breeze springing up, we weighed anchor and. set sail 
from Nanaimo into the Gulf of Georgia. This gulf, 
owing to its strong currents and ever-varying 
winds, is the terror of all British Columbian naviga- 
tors.* By dint of good steering, however, we were 
fortunate enough to reach the head of the gulf by 
the evening of the 29th. Here a high promontory, 
known as Cape Mudge, juts out from the land on the 



* The experience of Commander Mayne R.N., on the subject of the 
Inside Passage, is exactly mine. In his valuable work Four Years in 
British Columbia, he says (p. 176) that the Gulf of Georgia " forms a kind 
of playground for the waters, in which they frolic, utterly regardless of all 
tidal rules. This is caused by the collision of streams. The tide-rips are 
excessively dangerous to boats, and great care has to be exercised. A boat 
is almost certain to be swamped, and even a ship is so twisted and twirled 
about as to run considerable risk." 



170 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

Vancouver side; and, observing a sheltered little 
harbour lying well under its lee, we decided to take 
shelter here for the night. The morning's dawn 
disclosed to us smoke in the bush, from which we 
inferred that an Indian ranche must exist in the 
neighbourhood, which, on examination, we found 
was the fact. We accordingly paid the natives a 
flying visit, purchasing from them five splendid 
salmon for the sum of two shillings sterling. 

Johnstone Straits, which divide Vancouver from 
the largest-sized island in the Passage, was our next 
venture. It looks smooth work enough on the map. 
In reality, it is always the toughest tug of the 
voyage. 

At daybreak on November the 1st we might have 
been seen, still in the trough of a rough sea, off 
Cape Mudge. We had then been beating about for 
two nights and a day, in a vain struggle to enter 
Johnstone Straits. Indeed, it was not till after 
three days, alternately advancing and retreating at 
the mercy of changing tides and coquetting winds, 
that, having taken to our oars as a last resource, we 
finally succeeded in clearing the long, ugly strait 
itself. 

Some thirty miles distance beyond the north 



OFF THE SALMON RIVER. 171 

entrance to the straits, a fine river discharges its 
waters with fearful velocity into this arm of the sea. 
It is called the Salmon River, from the multitude of 
fish of that species which swarm in it. We made 
several ineffectual efforts to cross the river's mouth. 
Our final attempt was not successful until the sloop 
had all but capsized, the sea making a clean sweep 
of the decks, and washing our live fowls and several 
casks of prime mess-pork overboard. Before we got 
completely across, a stiff breeze from the S.E., while 
working us up against a stubborn head-tide, swung 
the sloop's boom round from the port-side. Our 
cook, who chanced to be standing by the taffrail, 
was knocked into the water, but, catching fortunately 
at a sail which dragged along after us, he was 
hauled a-board again. I had the narrowest escape 
possible from a watery mishap of the same kind. 
Seeing the boom coming, I bent my head to 
avoid it, when the boom-sail lifted me neatly over to 
starboard. Scrambling into the rigging, I let myself 
down by a rope into the cabin, thankful to have 
come off without even a ducking. 

This was a roughish introduction to the fair wind 
and comparatively smooth water which commenced 
immediately after we had passed the Salmon Eiver, 



172 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

and held on till we entered the little bay where 
stands the fort erected by the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany. This is close to Queen Charlotte Sound, and 
at the extreme north-west end of the Inside Passage. 

All along our route we could discern northwards 
the dim outline of a high mountain-range, as yet 
unnamed and unexplored by civilized man, but which 
is doubtless a spur of the Cascade Mountains. The 
Vancouver shore opposite lies low for a very con- 
siderable distance inland. It here consists of a rich 
loamy soil, likely to turn out extremely productive 
at some future period. For the present brushwood 
prevails exclusively. The high timberage of these 
regions begins again as one approaches Fort Rupert. 
In the low levels, the residents at the fort told us, 
the atmosphere is generally clear, dry, and genial; 
but we could distinctly see heavy snow falling on 
the mountain- tops far away. Until within a few 
miles of Fort Rupert this part of Vancouver presents 
an aspect of the dreariest monotony. Near that point, 
however, the wild and grand scenery of its other 
parts is resumed. 

During the entire voyage up the Inside Passage, 
our best day's sail was twenty-five miles. Allow- 
ance should of course be made for our over-laden 



TWENTY THOUSAND ISLETS. 173 

craft. But the Leonide, if fairly treated, almost 
rivalled the saucy Rebecca. Balancing computations, 
therefore, this sailing would not give more than an 
average of twenty miles a day at the highest ; 
whereas the Inside Passage is quite two hundred 
and seventy miles long. In other words it seems 
clear that not less than fourteen days are required to 
accomplish it. Surely there cannot be stronger proof 
that the Outside Passage, which never takes above 
six days, is vastly more expeditious ; not to mention 
its evident superiority in respect of sea-room and 
general safeness. 

Only those who have navigated the tortuous seas 
between Vancouver and the mainland of British 
Columbia can conceive the freaks which wind and 
tide are capable of indulging in. It is a standing 
puzzle to the Indian. But the white man perfectly 
accounts for it on looking to the innumerable small 
islands with which nature has fringed the whole of 
the British Columbian coast. If ever these islets 
come to be named, I much doubt whether any 
nomenclature will be found sufficiently rich to in- 
clude them all. The simplest plan would be to 
number them like the streets of New York. Com- 
mencing at San Juan de Fuca, and ending with Fort 



174 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

Simpson, a distance of five hundred miles by an 
average of ten miles wide, the highest number, I feel 
sure, would then exceed 20,000. Such a quantity of 
islands, grouped together in so confined a space, does 
not exist in any other portion of the globe. Well, 
as the unsophisticated navigator pursues the tenor of 
his way along this little-known route, he is surprised 
by the wind suddenly describing a circle round one 
of these islets, then bowling down a funnel-like 
channel straight at him, and, after having literally 
turned a corner, sweeping madly up another gullet 
or ravine, from which again it descends upon him 
with quadruple force. The utmost care is conse- 
quently indispensably requisite in this navigation. 
Not unfrequently the morning dawn would reveal 
to us that, instead of having advanced, we had been 
drifting back all night. The contending winds 
seemed legionary. We usually managed, it is true, 
to have one or other of them in our favour; but the 
most powerful wind was invariably adverse to us. 
This shows, too, that the up passage is more tedious 
than the down. There were very few days, or nights 
either, on which we had not to use our long oars, 
passengers and all, like so many Thames bargemen, 
sometimes for hours together. In short, I can 



A-GROUND ON A REEF. 175 

imagine no navigation attended with greater tedium, 
danger, and hardship. Steam alone is able to reduce 
it to submission. 

It was now getting on in November. During the 
last week the cold had set in, and we had sleety rain 
and snow almost continuously. We sheered out of 
Queen Charlotte Sound, however, and, hugging the 
mainland, steered within a point or two of due north, 
towards Edmund Point and the Bentinck Arms. 

Though now clear of the currents and peculiar 
winds of the Inside Passage, we had yet to expe- 
rience another of the perils indigenous to this imper- 
fectly known highway of the sea. 

Whilst the slant sleet and borean blast were at 
their worst, the Leonide went a-ground on a sunken 
rock or reef. Our slow rate of progression neces- 
sarily weakened the sloop's impetus ; else the danger, 
with such a cargo on board, off that wilderness of a 
coast, would have been extreme. As it was, a couple 
of hours' hard labour enabled us to haul the vessel 
back into deep water, and thus to save her not only 
from destruction, but from any serious damage. 

This occurred early one morning. We had then 
arrived within a day's sail of our first destination. 
The captain now consenting, I took the sloop's 



176 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

canoe, and, with one of my own men to steer, 
paddled forward to the North Bentinck Arm, which 
I reached just three hours in advance of the Leonide. 

Well do I recollect that 22nd of November, a dull, 
dreary, wintry day. It was a Saturday evening ; but 
we had time to discharge a large portion of the 
freight, I acting as stevedore and supercargo. 

It is strange what a man can do when he is put 
to it. I speak from personal observation and expe- 
rience when I say that anybody, with ordinary in- 
telligence and a fair amount of bodily health, may 
push himself along in a new country. At the 
date of my leaving England, what did I know of 
industrial work beyond the sphere of my peculiar 
profession? Yet I may point to my own case, and 
I trust without being suspected of vanity, as a prac- 
tical instance. For there I was at the North Bentinck 
Arm, acting as ship's clerk and superintending the 
unloading of a vessel, having previously piloted it 
up the Inside Passage from Vancouver, in place of 
a " professed pilot," who, though purposely shipped 
at Victoria, had shown himself as incapable of 
managing a sloop on the high seas as any Highlander 
in his bonnet and breeks. 

About latitude 52°, longitude 128°, and exactly 



THE BENTINCK ARMS. 177 

opposite Cape St. James of Queen Charlotte Islands, 
a large estuary occurs in the British Columbian 
mainland. This estuary is splendidly sheltered from 
the ocean by an island, measuring twenty miles in 
length, and called after its discoverer, one Captain 
Maclaughlin, a Scotchman. But the estuary itself 
leads up thirty miles into the interior by a broad and 
deep channel. It there divides into two channels, 
which have been named respectively the North and 
South Bentinck Arms, and which lead again, the one 
by a still scarcely explored route over the last range 
of the Rocky Mountains into Canada, the other into 
the heart of the Blue and Cascade Mountains. 

A little above the conjunction of the two Arms, in 
the North Channel, a small colony had been formed, 
partly as a standpoint for barter with the Indians, 
partly with a view to the provisioning and accom- 
modation of those who, like myself, were rash enough 
to probe the recesses of the famous Cascades, in 
search of gold or other minerals. I do not entertain 
the least doubt that, when capital is brought to bear 
upon this upper portion of British Columbia, the 
route thence into the interior, and so into Canada 
West, will be fully explored and speedily established. 
The scheme will meet with opposition ; but, as it is 

N 



178 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

sure to succeed eventually, all who know anything 
of our possessions in the North Pacific foresee 
an immense change in the mercantile state of this 
colony by the certain diversion of perhaps half 
its traffic from Victoria in Vancouver Island to 
the towns yet to be formed on the North Bentinck 
Arm. 

Scotchmen have so far been the main projectors of 
this enterprise. Hence the aforesaid little settle- 
ment, for years known familiarly at Victoria as " The 
Arm," had assumed at last the style and title of New 
Aberdeen. 

One Wallace it was who kept the ranche or hotel 
there, a thrifty and thriving speculator, well de- 
serving of permanent success. I had twice pre- 
viously spent some useful and jolly days under his 
roof, when engaged in my bootless Cascade expedi- 
tion, and now it became my pleasing task to lend a 
helping hand in revictualling his store, and otherwise 
doing him a good turn. Those are the reciprocal 
services in which pioneers specially rejoice. In fact, 
with shame must it be acknowledged that, the more 
sparse the population in a given radius, the less 
selfish and the more genial, hearty, and obliging do 
we lords of the creation become in our dealings with 



JIM THE INDIAN. 179 

our fellow-creatures. No tyro in colonization but 
will draw that inference. 

While hob-nobbing with Pioneer Wallace, however, 
I had serious doubts of being able to cultivate 
friendly relations with the rest of mankind at New 
Aberdeen. I learnt that the small-pox had carried 
off hundreds of Indians since my first visit there; and 
as the party I then headed was the unfortunate 
means of introducing the fell disease amongst them, 
I began to fear lest the natives should oppose my 
landing. But I was soon undeceived. 

Remarking a fine specimen of Young India (North 
Pacific section) gazing at me, not with eyes indi- 
cating intense hatred, as I had expected, but with an 
expression of sorrow, I sympathizingly inquired the 
cause. He was one of those whom the small-pox 
had spared, but had nevertheless so deeply marked 
that I did not recognise his face in the least. But the 
moment he spoke I knew him to be my old Indian 
friend Jim, our guide on the Ben tin ck Trail over the 
Blue Mountain. But for Jim none of that party of 
ours would be alive at this day. He answered my 
query by saying ruefully, but in very good English, 
"Do you not remember me, sir?" Of course I at 
once went and shook him warmly by the hand, which 

n 2 



180 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

mark of my remembrance and sympathy so overcame 
the poor fellow that he had much to do to keep 
down his feeling ; and yet the feat was indispensably 
necessary, if he would retain his character as an 
Indian brave. I never took so kindly to any Indian. 
Jim was in my opinion an excellent example of the 
real stuff that lies behind the dross and disfigure- 
ment with which Europeans are now only too fami- 
liarized in the Indian character. Had my position 
and circumstances allowed it, I should certainly have 
adopted him, as I felt sure he possessed a warm and 
generous disposition, besides great intelligence, which 
a few years of civilized life and training would have 
brought out in noble relief. 

We made but a short stay on the North Bentinck, 
not longer in fact than was necessary to clear out 
the sloop and right her for the rest of the voyage. 
While this was being accomplished, I set off in com- 
pany with Mr. Taylor, another courageous pioneer of 
these regions, on an excursion up the Bella Coola, or 
Belcoula Kiver. 

The country here may be described in a summary 
way as hilly, the hills sometimes rising to mountains 
with a rich loam for a soil, the river-banks, however, 
displaying a subsoil of gravel some twenty feet under- 



taylor's ranche. 181 

neath the surface. Nothing appears wanting but 
the axe, the spade, and the plough to render such a 
land as productive as any in the British Empire. 
At the period of my visit it was one wild forest, save 
the wigwams of the Indians in the bush, and Mr. 
Taylor's ranche about three miles upward. 

On our way thither we passed by two Indian settle- 
ments, or bivouacs rather. They were almost deserted, 
the small-pox having during the previous year 
reduced the tribes there from 4000 to a few dozens. 
I noticed that the river had an enormous stock of 
salmon. They tumbled over each other like sprats in 
the water, reminding one of some plant or vegetable 
run to seed. 

Mr. Taylor's ranche presented nothing new. It 
was the same log-house-in-the-backwoods kind of 
scene to which British Columbia has a way of 
accustoming every emigrant. The spirit that could 
induce an educated man to brave the loneliness 
and discomforts of a quasi-permanent residence in 
such a desert calls for admiration. At the same 
time, when the tremendous risk of life and the 
distant hope of profit are considered, it seems hardly 
possible to look upon isolated undertakings of this 
description as other than foolhardy. 



182 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

Mr. Taylor kindly gave me a fine buck-hound pup, 
which afterwards did me good service. I called him 
Cato. By-and-by he grew to be a very powerful 
animal, standing over two feet, and holding his own 
against any dozen of the curs with which the 
Indian wigwams on Queen Charlotte Islands are 
infested. Many a watch did my dog Cato keep for 
me. The Indians had a wholesome dread of him. 
He would think nothing of seizing them by the bare 
legs ; and as, by some instinct or other, he used to pick 
out those whom we knew to be our worst enemies, 
the Indians often threatened to kill him. Whenever 
they said this in my presence, I always vowed to 
them, with both hands on my revolvers, that it would 
be the worse for them if they tried to execute their 
threats. Poor Cato, he had a hard time of it. By 
constant vigilance, however, and by making him 
stay indoors after dark, I kept him in safety the 
whole of my subsequent residence at the mines. On 
leaving, I gave the faithful animal away to a white- 
man friend. 

Returning to New Aberdeen, I found the Leonide 
in nice trim for the second part of our voyage to 
Queen Charlotte Islands. We had just got the 
anchor on board, and were dropping down the Arm, 



LIEUTENANT FISHER. 183 

when an Indian of the Bella-Bella tribe came along- 
side in his canoe, and, speaking in very fair English, 
informed us that Lieutenant Fisher of the Royal 
Engineers had been barbarously murdered by the 
Chilicooten Indians. He was engaged at the time in 
surveying the route from the North Bentinck Arm to 
Cariboo, which, in the previous year, I had roughly 
mapped out for the information of the Colonial 
Government. It seems he strayed away from his 
camp. No sooner was he out of sight of his own 
men than some Indians, who had been tracking his 
party for several days before, pounced upon him, 
stabbed him to death with their knives, and then 
stripped the body naked. We hove-to, in order to 
give me the opportunity of getting at all the facts 
concerning poor Mr. Fisher's fate. These I collected 
and despatched to Victoria, to the editor of the 
Colonist newspaper, in the hope that, by this means, 
whatever friends he had in England and his brother- 
officers might hear of his untimely end. 

On the whole, New Aberdeen left sad impressions. 

For three irksome days we did our utmost to clear 
the particular nest of islands which lie grouped 
between the Bentinck Arms and the North Pacific 
Ocean; but, owing to the usual cause, fickle winds 



184 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

and vicious currents, we made but slow head- 
way. 

As at length we began to steer to the southward, 
with a view of taking the sloop round the south of 
Maclaughlin Island, we were passed by the Labouchere 
steamer, belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company. 
We signalled in the customary manner, but she pre- 
ferred not to acknowledge our compliments. The 
reason of such exceptionally strange behaviour on 
the high seas we soon discovered. When failing to 
double Edmund Point, the Leonide had next day to 
put into the little harbour of a new Indian settlement 
about fifty miles further down the coast. The 
natives in the settlement were simply mad-drunk, the 
Labouchere having, on her way up, supplied them with 
an immense quantity of whisky, in barter for fur- 
skins. 

This was the Bella-Bella tribe. We heard they 
had recently deserted their old camping-grounds up 
the Arm, and had come down here in consequence of 
the fearful gaps and ravages caused by the small- 
pox. Many mournful hours of reflection did it give 
me when I came face to face with the enormous 
sacrifice of life I had unwittingly brought about, 
through my unfortunate exploring party to tne 



BELLA-BELLAS AND BELLA-COOLAS. 185 

Cascades introducing that pest in the neighbourhood 
of the Arm. 

The Bella-Bella tribe, though not to be despised, 
were formerly by no means a match for their born 
foes the Bella- Coolas, who used always to cut off a 
great number of the Bella-Bellas whenever these 
ventured beyond their own territory. But now the 
Bella-Bellas, tkough deplorably reduced in their own 
tribe, found themselves in numbers and force far 
ahead of the Bella- Coolas, and were accordingly 
preparing, might and main, to administer condign 
punishment to their ancient enemies. Thus does one 
evil produce another. The few men at this settle- 
ment who had remained sober told us that the tribe 
intended to go off very soon on the war- trail, and kill 
every single man of the hostile tribe, out of revenge 
for the past. It is true they could not quite accom- 
plish their sanguinary purpose. But there was 
terrible bloodshed none the less. 

I prophesy that, before the year 1880, the Indians 
of British Columbia and Vancouver will be numbered 
by as many dozens as they counted thousands when 
I originally saw them. The cause of this is twofold : 
first, the natural antagonism existing between savage 
nations, resulting there in frightful internecine 



186 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

struggles ; which spirit, secondly, has been lamentably 
increased by the intoxicating drinks the Indians have 
of late years so easily procured from the unprincipled 
traders who frequent the coast. 

I tried to trade with the Bella-Bellas, but could 
not induce them to come to terms unless I consented 
to barter in whisky. This, neither I nor the skipper 
would do, under any circumstances. The surprise 
of the Indians at our refusal told its own tale. 
During the night numbers of them came alongside 
the sloop in a shocking state of intoxication, openly 
proclaiming that the Hudson's Bay Company regularly 
sent liquor round to the different tribes. The 
chief, who was sober, offered in barter a large 
ship's telescope, but would take nothing in exchange 
except fire-water. Within a week afterwards we 
discovered that the glass in question had been stolen, 
only a few days before, from our skippers own 
brother. It was perhaps as well we did not know 
this at the time, or there might have been a fatal 
row with the Bella-Bellas, if indeed the temptation 
to redeem his brother's property by the sole means 
of a barter in fire-water, might not have proved too 
strong for our little captain. 

Having filled our water -casks, and fearing 



GETTING OUT TO SEA. 187 

treachery from these besotted Indians, we stole away 
quietly at daybreak. But it was only to return 
with ignominy; for, although now in sight of the 
open sea, each time that we hauled clear of the shore, 
the wind perversely " died down," and we had 
actually to row the Leonide back to the Bella-Bella 
settlement. This went on for two whole days, amidst 
the derisive yells of groups of Indians on the beach. 
Tired at last, I succeeded in persuading the skipper 
and the ignorant pilot to risk it, by rowing out to 
sea, instead of running in for shelter every moment, 
as though we were a set of home-sick girls. " Nothing 
venture, nothing gain," I thought; and at this junc- 
ture I certainly did not err. 

So we rowed out at 10 a.m. one sunny morning, 
and at sundown the same evening, Day Point, 
on Maclaughlin Island, was twenty miles astern, with 
a breeze nearly dead aft pushing us steadily through 
the water. 

On the morning of the second day we dropped 
anchor somewhere off Queen Charlotte Islands, 
having taken just forty-eight hours to do our fifty 
miles across from Day Point — that is, about a mile an 
hour — and eight whole days to come the distance 
from New Aberdeen. 



188 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

A steamer might readily have performed the 
service, there and back, four times over; whilst an 
Atlantic Cunard might have, meantime, accomplished 
its run from Liverpool to New York with ease. 

And yet it was less than half our voyage from 
Victoria, Vancouver Island. 



189 



CHAPTER XIII. 

WHERE ARE WE? — STORMS — WORKMEN IN BRITISH COLUMBIA — POWER- 
LESSNESS OP A LEADER BEYOND THE HAUNTS OP CIVILIZED LIPE — 
MUTINY — TO WORK AGAIN — MINING OPERATIONS — CHRISTMAS DAY AT 
THE LOG-HOUSE — KLUE AND HIS CHIEPS — HOW TO CIVILIZE INDIANS. 

Well, at last we had made Queen Charlotte. But 
whereabouts exactly were we in the Islands? That 
was the next question. And a very pretty puzzler it 
proved, too, with a lubberly pilot in charge of us, and 
not a single instrument on board to take the sun's 
altitude. Fancy what it would be to anchor off 
Start Point in South Devon, with a kind of misty 
doubt in one's mind that the land on the lee bow 
of the ship was possibly Flamborough Head. 

Our guesses had hardly begun, however, when 
down came a squall upon us, sharper and much more 
sudden than any Mediterranean burrasca. Luckily 
we had reefed sails; for the squall did not give us 
five minutes' warning. With awful fury it uprooted 
trees in all directions, loosening huge boulders on the 



190 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

mountain-tops, and tumbling them into the sea like 
foot-balls, whilst the wind shrieked again through 
the sea-caverns, bounding up from rock to rock, and 
down again to the lower levels, till the islands seemed 
shaken to their very foundations. Presently, and 
with the same marvellous suddenness, the roar of 
the elements ceased, a death-like calm immediately 
supervening. 

Upon this we examined our position, and con- 
gratulated one another heartily on having crossed 
Queen Charlotte Sound within a few minutes of 
the time required to save ourselves. 

We lay there all night, thinking wisely that in- 
action was the best policy when a wrong movement 
might precipitate our ruin, particularly in the dark. 
Next morning our pilot declared his certain con- 
viction that we were north of the Copper Islands. 
But as I knew every stone for sixty miles northward 
of that position, and yet did not recognise this coast, 
it followed, according to the pilot's " convictions," 
that we ought to sail south. We did so, and before 
noon a long string of rocky islets came in view, 
stretching right across our bows. Observing them 
with a glass, I pronounced them at once to be Cape 
St. James and its satellite rocks, which form the 



TWO GALES. 191 

most easterly point of the Queen Charlotte group of 
islands. Happily, we had already gone so far west. 
If we had been only five miles more to the east, we 
might easily have passed Cape St. James, and sailed 
out, goodness knows whither, into the boundless 
Pacific Ocean. 

Without more ado, therefore, we bouted ship, and 
shaped our course due north for the Copper Islands, 
feeling sure by this time where we were going to. 
Alas, we once more laid the flattering unction to 
our souls too soon. Tacking against a dead head- 
wind, we had barely gained ten miles on our right 
course when another gale, a hundred times worse 
than the one before, drove us like a piece of cork 
into our last night's anchorage. Glad we were, 
indeed, to get that much shelter. But every instant 
I expected we should be driven out to sea; and 
then we should have turned a few marine somer- 
saults, and have victualled the North Pacific fishes 
for the whole Winter. It was a little bay, and up and 
down it we went, dragging our two anchors after 
us as if they were two pins. Twice, another two 
yards would have put us outside. On the last 
occasion, thinking it was all over with us, I stripped 
for a swim to the shore, two hundred yards distant. 



192 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

I believe, too, I should have actually plunged into 
the angry flood, stemmed it with a heart of con- 
troversy, and have swum to yonder point, but that, 
seeing my mates so willing, I turned to lend them 
a last hand, as I imagined. Jumping into the boat, 
we hauled out the third anchor. Then, rowing like 
lunatics, we dropped it in the centre of the bay, 
just as the sloop was about to launch out wildly 
into the deep. It was a veritable snatch from the 
jaws of death. But it taught us a seaman's lesson 
likewise. We, therefore, continued buffeting the 
storm with lusty sinews for full six hours. As 
fast as our sloop dragged her two anchors, we carried 
a third further up the bay, and then half pulled and 
half rowed her in. Not a soul amongst us but 
contributed his quantum to this crucial test of man- 
liness. We even forgave the pilot his lubberliness, 
in consideration of his expending himself at the 
helm and capstan. Every man on board fought for 
our joint- stock of life as for his own. 

I may here state that my observations on Queen 
Charlotte Islands go to prove the duration of storm- 
weather in those latitudes to be almost invariably 
six hours. Thus, should the weather be calm, say 
from noon to six p.m., after six o'clock it will change 



AT THE COPPER-MINES. 193 

to rough, at midnight it will double its force, at 
six a.m. it will begin to die off, until, by noon 
again, the wind and the water have become as 
still as a lakelet in England in Summer. Not that 
Queen Charlotte weather is always changeable, but 
that, when it does change, these are the rules of its 
changes. I see good reason for attributing this 
action to the tides, although the tiding there acts 
with no great regularity. 

We had a quiet night's rest after the travail of 
that anxious day. 

Early in the morning, a canoe full of Hydah 
Indians paddled into the bay. I engaged them to 
take me to the copper-mines, and to return with one 
of my workmen, who would pilot the sloop in. 

It was three o'clock on that day when I reached 
the long-wished-for destination, and found my men 
all but out of provisions, and murmuring not a little. 
Of the murmurs I took no notice, beyond frankly 
explaining the cause of our detention. It is human 
nature, the world over, to feel disgusted at being 
kept waiting, no matter how right the reason. But 
when the rag-tag-and-bobtail of society vent their 
humour in irrational grumbling, wise men should 
remain silent. 

o 



194 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

Before night, the Leonide came to anchor within a 
couple of hundred yards of our old log-house on 
Burnaby Island. 

The voyage from Victoria to the Copper Islands 
had thus consumed no less than thirty- six days. 
Now I did the same distance by the Outside Passage 
in four days, on board the Rebecca^ and eventually, 
by the Inside Passage . in twenty-one days, in an 
open canoe. Making, then, every allowance for our 
troublesome diversion to the Arm, this, I hold, 
constitutes irrefragable evidence that, from the 
Straits of San Juan de Fuca to Cape Scott of Van- 
couver Island, the inner British Columbian waters 
offer no facilities to sailing-vessels. 

I have recounted above the shocking havoc of the 
small-pox amongst our Queen Charlotte Indians, 
likewise the summary measures I adopted to stamp it 
out of Skincuttle. Prior to that, it had been my 
already-mentioned misfortune to carry the plague to 
the tribes along the North and South Bentinck Arms 
of the mainland. And now a similar fatality seemed 
to be pursuing me. 

At New Aberdeen we had compassionately taken 
a European on board as a passenger via Queen 
Charlotte to Victoria. As ill-luck would have it, 



MUTINOUS SYMPTOMS. 195 

what should he do but fall sick of small-pox, some 
days before we arrived at the copper-mines? I en- 
tered a vehement protest against his being put on 
shore, knowing only too well the certain consequences. 
The little skipper insisted, however, and then weighed 
anchor without him. 

We whites, it is true, were not attacked; but 
scarce had the sick man landed when the Indians 
again caught it ; and in a very short space of time 
some of our best friends of the Ninstence or Cape 
St. James tribe — to my sorrow, seeing how few 
genuine friends we counted in any of the tribes — had 
disappeared for ever from the scene. It was long 
before health could be restored to the surroundings 
of our little colony. 

December the 1st was the day of my re-arrival. 
The Indian Summer had almost waned; and my first 
thoughts, therefore, were given to preparing for the 
approach of Winter, and for visits from some of our 
Indian friends, in reality our secret foes. 

But neither of these preparations could now be 
satisfactorily made; for the mutinous disposition of 
my own working party became more apparent every 
hour. In fact, my forced absence of two months and 
upwards had quite demoralized them, which did not 

2 



196 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

wholly surprise me, I must own, considering the riff- 
raff one so often has to engage with in colonies, 
the small personal interest these men could be ex- 
pected to take in an enterprise of this nature, and my 
legal powerlessness to uphold the law. 

It is extremely difficult to obtain the services of 
really good workmen towards any undertaking in 
British Columbia. The majority of the labourers 
for hire there are not English, but the scum of 
America. And as the scum of Europe rush to the 
United States, it may well be supposed what it is 
the United States send further west to us. On ap- 
plying for an engagement, they say they can do any- 
thing. This cannot be disproved till they are actually 
seen at work. Wherefore, if workmen you want, 
take these random applicants you must. After you 
have defrayed their expenses to your field of labour — 
and that is always expensive in the North Pacific — 
they turn out, as often as not, to be completely 
worthless. Should a chance occur to send them 
back, even at the loss of paying the return-passage, 
their employer may think himself a lucky man. 
The ordinary mischance, however, is to have them 
hanging about one's premises, eating up provisions, 
drinking all they can grab, utterly idle themselves, 



AN ANOMALOUS POSITION. 197 

and interfering with the honest work of others. Now 
a Captain on the deck of his ship possesses ample 
legal authority to deal with such cases. But he 
who heads a party of colonists on land, be his 
location ever so far removed from the haunts of 
civilization, is without a remedy, legally speaking. 
No wonder that, in a former row, Chief Skid-a-ga- 
tees could by no means understand the laws of the 
white-men. For truly my position in that respect 
was an anomaly. I cannot see, indeed, why the 
leader of a residentiary enterprise like mine, en- 
couraged and otherwise supported by Government, 
should not be invested with plenary magisterial 
jurisdiction within his circumscribed sphere of work. 
It would be unusual, no doubt; but a two years' 
residence in an almost unknown and totally un- 
colonized part of the world is not usual either- And 
nevertheless, if our countries in the Far West are to 
be peopled, those exceptional undertakings will grow 
into a sort of rule, for which the Colonial Govern- 
ment ought to legislate. I do not shrink from say- 
ing that, had a magistrate's commission for Queen 
Charlotte Islands been conferred upon me, our ex- 
penditure would have been immeasurably less than it 
was, inasmuch as I might have prevented or arrested 



198 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

the demoralization of the men, whilst the beneficial 
results to civilized life of my residence there would 
have correspondingly increased. 

The real cause for the men's discontent was their 
unwillingness to bend to my yoke, mild as I made 
it. They had been their own masters for two 
months — why should they knock under to me now ? 
Their pretext was the food. Upon which I vainly 
reasoned " that luxuries could not be expected in 
tke backwoods of America, but that, as for substantial 
food, they were better off than many a gang of 
labourers thrice their value, in civilized Europe." 
To show the incalculable difficulty of humouring 
a crew of this description, in a place where humour- 
ing only will do, I shall enumerate in the gross the 
stock of provisions which I had taken up with me 
in the Leonide : first, plenty of second-class bacon, 
a large supply of excellent prime beef and pork, 
countless ducks and geese ; secondly, potatoes, beans, 
first-class tea, coffee, sugar, and butter, raisins, rice, 
golden syrup, and biscuits; thirdly, a fair relay of 
spirits for grog. All this abundant store I carefully 
looked after myself, always presiding at the daily 
distribution of rations. " What do you want more ?" 
I used to say to my eleven companions, " unless you 



TO WORK AGAIN. 199 

wish to knock off altogether, and live like fine 
gentlemen ?" But, though often silenced, they were 
never satisfied. " Why should you distribute the 
food? It is ours as much as yours," some grumbler 
would soon begin again; and so on indefinitely 
through the Winter. Once a drunken fellow, 
who had taken a double ration of rum, actually 
levelled a rifle at me outside our log-house 
door. The others thought this measure rather too 
violent, and disarmed him. In the state we were, 
however, it certainly did make me invoke lynch-law 
on the murderous villain's head; while the fear that 
I might really carry my menace into execution had 
the effect of damping the mutinous spirit of all the 
party for some time to come. It proved what might 
have been done had the law assisted me, instead of 
its abeyance impeding me at every step, during this 
second year of residence. 

However, as soon as I could in any degree per- 
suade the men to work on with me, we set to at 
repairing our canoe, cleaning and "fixing" our 
fire-arms, erecting a regular blacksmith's forge, and 
enlarging our log-house, so as to make it hold our 
mining implements and stores more conveniently. 

The alterations took long, owing to the want of 



200 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

carpenters' tools. Our blacksmith, I remember, forged 
a large knife out of a spade. The knife was eighteen 
inches in length and six inches wide. With this I 
managed to split the shingles requisite for the roof, 
whilst another man did his best with a hatchet at 
carpentering some trees into logs for the walls. 
When the roof was on, we put up an empty powder- 
keg, to serve in the novel capacity of a chimney-pot, 
and a ticklish business we had of it, too. Before the 
keg got naturalized, it caught fire twice, and well- 
nigh put the house in a blaze. Fortunately our 
powder was all stacked at the other end of the log- 
house; but the twenty powder-kegs which we now 
had to keep in the proximity of possible fire, did 
not form the pleasantest reflection for the inhabi- 
tants of that log-house. 

To anybody whose experience is bounded by 
Europe, exposing our lives thus wantonly must appear 
the height of suicidal folly. It was that, I do believe. 
In fact, on the other side of the Atlantic nothing is 
half so marvellous as the reckless familiarities with 
gunpowder, steam, or other explosives, in which 
every one indulges. But somehow, among Trans- 
atlantics you get used to it. 

I next had both log-houses thoroughly cleansed, 



MINING OPERATIONS. 201 

and all the chinks in the walls filled up with oakum ; 
and when the dangerous trees near had been cut 
down, in order not to afford^ them an opportunity 
of falling and crushing us outright in a January 
storm, as they nearly did the year before, I began to 
feel snug and comfortable, from a material point of 
view, for the approaching Winter. 

Then came the mining operations. 

I re-prospected all my old prospects, and reviewed 
the shaft-work, frequently going down our main- 
shaft at Burnaby, pushing onward into the lode, or 
instructing and stimulating the men. Much their 
laziness wanted it. Quite as I expected, next to 
nothing had been done. Whilst I was absent, 
spending myself and risking my life to forage for 
them, the good-for-nothing fellows had been playing 
and idling away their time, foreman included. 

No resource remained to me, however, but to grin 
and bear the loss, and otherwise make the best of a 
bad job, by affecting to laugh it off, and trying to 
inspirit them to work. Had I not smothered my 
feelings, the scoundrels would have turned utterly 
rusty, left me in the lurch, seized the stores, 
and, fraternizing with the too-willing Indians, 
have perhaps ended by murdering me, and have 



202 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

afterwards escaped themselves to the mainland. 
Those are some of the chances a gentleman has to 
run when he stoops to associate with those beneath 
him, whatever be his ulterior object, in a land beyond 
the pale of civilization. 

Except, then, that I kept a jealous guard over the 
stores and provisions, and that I continued, atleastnomi- 
nally, to direct everything, thus retaining my ascen- 
dancy, I pretended to take it all as a matter of course. 

Such was the manner in which I tided over the 
Winter; although, by Christmastime, it had become 
pretty clear to me that, from these causes, our Com- 
pany could never hope for success on the present 
system of operations. 

As maybe supposed, my Christmas was a dull one. 
The unsettled weather added to the discomfort. 
In that respect Queen Charlotte Islands, as well as 
the rest of British Columbia, seem closely to copy 
Old England. When the Indian Summer is over, 
you do not get your Winter at once. Quite a month 
ensues of muggy, sleety, and sloughy weather. You 
are often well into January before the real frost and 
snow arrive. Eain at Christmas-tide is unpleasant 
enough in all countries. What must it have been in that 
outlandish settlement, under a roof not rain-proof? 



CHRISTMAS-DAY. 203 

Despite all our efforts, the shingles with which the 
roof was covered would split open, sometimes quite 
suddenly, or the knot-holes would unaccountably 
grow larger. None of these defects could we remedy, 
for want of proper felting, then an unpurchasable 
article in the colony. 

I think I never shall forget that unique roof of 
ours. My bunk was nearly under the barrel which 
did duty as chimney-top. Many a fine night have I 
lain there, prone on my back, intently watching the 
Plough as it curved beneath the Polar Star, or other 
of the sidereal groups as they appeared to career 
through the heavens, until hidden from my vision by 
the arc of our telescopic barrel chimney-top. But 
when it rained I had to manage as I could. 

That Christmas-day our cook served us up roast 
goose, with a dish which he insisted on calling plum- 
pudding. Seated across the edge of my bunk, I was 
in the act of doing justice to the unwise but savoury 
bird, when a rising storm made the cranks of our 
log -house creak, and before we had time to take 
warning, a douche of rain-water came tumbling 
aslant from the chimney on to my plate. I confess I 
was very near profaning the sacred ness of the day 
by a few hearty curses; until, chancing to remember 



204 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

a similar mishap in a civilized house near London, 
where the whole contents of a Christmas dinner- 
table were instantaneously destroyed through the 
ceiling falling upon it, I thought I might have fared 
.worse; and so I bore with the loud guffaw of my 
men as they coarsely chaffed me over losing my 
Christmas dinner. This was the wisest policy — 
nay, the only one, with a set of men to whom I had 
in a measure committed myself for the time being. 

All through those Winter evenings, mine and their 
principal resource lay in sitting round a good fire 
in our log-house, mending clothes, cleaning guns and 
tools, talking of homes and friends, and wondering 
what those friends were doing at that particular 
moment — not without a hope that they were thinking 
of us forerunners of civilization, inaccessible as a rule 
by any description of boat or small sailing-vessel 
during quite three months of the year. 

The experience of the preceding twelve months 
made me very chary of admitting the Indians to our 
log-house at night. Before them I always took care 
to avoid any appearance of disunion amongst our- 
selves ; and when they saw that we spent so much 
of our time shut up together it created a mysterious 
air of strength, which undoubtedly was of service. 



KLUE AND HIS CHIEFS. 205 

Sometimes, however, I would allow Chief Klue 
and his compeers to pay us evening visits. Then, 
while my men worked and smoked, I have spent 
hours upon hours in explaining the phenomena of 
nature and the arts of civilized man to the chiefs. 

I found them ever most attentive and interested, 
and, I must add in justice, far more intelligent than 
many illiterate white men in our own country. On 
the other hand, the Indians always believed me to be 
a great English chieftain — Hyas-King-George-Tyhee* 
— by reason of the marvellous tales I used to tell 
them. The size and population of London and of 
Europe, the properties of gas and steam, the art of 
photography, but especially telegraphy, filled them 
with astonishment. When the chiefs heard how our 
countrymen could speak together at a distance, and 
that, ere the present race of Indians were very old, 
they at Burnaby would be able to converse with 
their stray friends at Victoria, or with other tribes 
on the mainland, and without either party moving 
from their respective positions, they held up their 
hands amazed. " Powerful is the white man, wise 
and powerful," exclaimed Klue frequently. 

* Queen Charlotte Islands having been discovered in the reign of 
George the Third, the Indians associate with that king's name every 
Englishman they have seen since. 



206 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

Yet for all our wisdom and power, or Klue's 
friendly reverence for those qualities of ours, I 
imagine, when the telegraph does come to Queen 
Charlotte, he will be the first to clip just one little bit 
of the wire, which crime, if not punished on the 
instant, will, I foresee, lead to a general robbery — 
capswallo — of the telegraphic apparatus. The 
Indians will be sure to want to cut the wire all up, to 
make fish-hooks, fasteners, and rings for their own 
ears or their women's noses and under-lips. 

That which astounded them most, however, was 
my account of the substance, movements, and rela- 
tive positions of the sun, moon, and stars. As the 
white man was so long mastering this branch of 
science, it is certainly no marvel that poor Blacky 
should manifest incredulity on having the planetary 
system first explained to him. The Queen Charlotte 
Islanders, I perceived, did connect the sun and the 
moon, in some misty kind of way, with the Great 
Spirit. But they seemed not to possess the faintest 
notion of the earth being likewise a planet; whilst 
the stars, in their idea, consisted of mere sparks, which 
the sun had probably left behind him at bed-time. 
When I enlightened them on these points, and 
particularly when I declared that the planets were 



HOW TO REFORM THE INDIANS. 207 

probably peopled worlds like ours, and that the 
earth went round the sun, instead of the sun round 
the earth, Chief Klue shook his head in a comically 
doleful manner, as much as to say "It is all gammon, 
Tyhee Poole; and I am only sorry you should turn 
out such a liar." But presently, after some moments* 
apparent reflection, he looked up again and asked 
eagerly, "How know? how know?" And as then, 
by means of homely proofs, I unfolded to him and 
his brother-chiefs the Copernican revelation, convic- 
tion appeared to strike upon their minds much 
more quickly than it did upon the minds of the Grand 
Inquisitors who imprisoned Galileo. 

In order to effect a solid and permanent reform in 
these savages, it is absolutely necessary to enlist the 
sympathies of the heart as well as the head. I do not 
mean this as a truism. Heart and head must of 
course work in concert, wherever good is to be 
effected. But to reform the Queen Charlotte Indians, 
supposing they escape the portending fate of the 
other tribes in the North Pacific, will, it strikes me, 
be a work involving prolonged time, formidable 
labour, sound judgment, and tried patience. You 
can easily get them to imitate you : but that, I have 
seen, avails nothing, as it leaves them in the end 



208 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

worse than they were in the beginning. The ways 
and employments of civilized peoples should be very 
cautiously introduced, the temptations attendant on 
such novelties being anything but beneficial to cer- 
tain weak places in the Indian character, namely, the 
tendency to theft and lying of every conceivable 
sort, the animal cunning which so soon shapes an 
Indian into an apt cheat, his total inappreciation of 
the virtue of forbearance ; above all, his insatiable lust 
for drink, and the brutish violence he invariably gives 
himself up to when under its influence. 

Only isolated settlements will serve the purpose. 
The Queen Charlotte Islander needs conversion, if 
ever savage needed it; but, to use a maxim of the 
great Lord Strafford, "less than thorough will not do 
it" for him. He must be continuously guided, watched, 
and controlled, that too by exceptional teaching and 
legislation; and, to our eternal disgrace, chiefest 
of all the requisite precautionary measures, is the 
necessity of keeping him from contamination with 
the average run of traders in the North Pacific, 
the majority of whom have a lower moral status 
than the veriest unconverted savage. 



209 



CHAPTER XIV. 

SEABOARD OE QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS — STORM-TOSSED SEAS — ABOR- 
TIVE BEAR- HUNT INDIANS NEITHER BRAVE MEN NOR CRACK 

SHOTS — HUNTING BEARS — STORMY PETRELS — TIDE-POLE— AN AQUATIC 
SKEDADDLE — RIFLE-PRACTICE ON BURNABY ISLAND — TWO STUNNING 
STORMS. 

The seaboard all round Queen Charlotte Islands, 
but especially its more southerly portion, is remark- 
able for the bold and rocky front it presents to the 
Pacific Ocean. As along the coast of British 
Columbia itself, so here, a cordon of black and 
beetling cliffs seems to forbid ocean aggression. 
The clusters of islets with which the larger islands 
are surrounded at intervals, give the notion of their 
being advanced out into the sea as scouts and 
vedettes. Those spots of insulated rock, even under 
the influence of Summer scenes smiling at them from 
the shore, offer to the passing mariner who chances 
to sight Queen Charlotte country a picture of 
absolute desolation. But when the Pacific rises . in 
its rage, when its mountain billows, after having 

p 



210 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

rolled unchecked over thousands of miles, meet 
here with a first obstruction, the mighty sea 
bursts in thunder upon the gloomy rocklets, which 
nevertheless emerge again from the foam like valiant 
warriors courting a contest. 

Such was much the scene which, in Winter time, 
usually met our eyes whenever we stepped out of 
the shelter of our log-house. The sea did not appear 
to have time to freeze, as it does by the north-easterly 
coast way of America. The truth is that, in the North 
Pacific, the Winter ocean-roll comes nearly continu- 
ously from the southward. The water always retains 
a certain warmth, therefore, which its passionate 
tumbling and dancing only serves to increase. 

But sometimes the stormy winds would retire; 
and then, though in the midst of Winter, the sea 
would soon smooth itself down till its surface became 
as gentle and unruffled as it looks on a lovely day in 
Summer from the south coast of Old England. The 
name Pacific seemed no longer a misnomer. And 
yet, strange to say, the very mildest and brightest 
days were those which invariably prognosticated 
frost and snow. 

After Canada, or even England, the snow-fall we 
had was a mere trifle. I do not remember a single 



AN ABORTIVE BEAR-HUNT. 211 

day on which the snow did not entirely disappear 
before sundown, whilst the frost never lasted above 
a few days together. The wind and rain storms 
proved to be our real enemies, for, when the sun and 
afterwards the frost returned, nothing could have 
been more beautiful than our winter weather. 

I well remember, one bright and frosty night of 
that kind, a rough knock coming to our door. 
Happening to stand nearest, I answered the knock. 
Chief Klue and two of his councillors were outside, 
evidently feeling the unwonted cold keenly, for they 
had their blankets tight round them, while, for a 
wonder, he was enveloped in an antiquated great-coat 
I had given him, and which I appropriately named 
his wrap-rascal. They wanted to tell me that a bear 
had been seen in the neighbourhood, and, now point- 
ing to the clear heavens, now clutching at the frozen 
air with their dingy hands, that there could not be a 
better time for a hunt. 

I could not afford time to let the men go; but, 
never having seen what an Indian hunt was like, and 
thinking to vary our provender with a novel sort of 
steak, I consented myself to join Klue the next 
morning. Accordingly I promised to lend him an 
Enfield rifle, that being the arm he liked best, as 

p 2 



212 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

English make. Meanwhile I prepared a small-bore 
American rifle for my own use. 

I can attest great objections to American rifles in 
general. They are too long and too weighty. For 
economy's sake the barrel ordinarily consists of one 
solid piece of steel, drilled while cold so as to take 
a half-ounce ball. This is all very well, if you can 
fire from a rest; but, with a rifle of that kind, pro- 
longed and unceasing practice alone will enable you to 
iire steadily from the shoulder. Besides, the butts are 
carved. This forms a considerable obstruction in quick 
shooting, as you have not only to get your sight, 
but also to fit the carved butt into your shoulder : 
for otherwise, should the gun hang fire, you are certain 
to hurt yourself, American rifles out of order having 
a habit of kicking as well as their English fellows. 

With the first streak of day, then, off we set — Klue, 
a small posse of his Indians, myself r and eight Indian 
dogs of the half-wolf breed, all together. As we 
entered the bush and began to crush down the brush- 
wood, dry and crisp from the frost, the morning sun 
was tipping the heights of Burnaby Island. 

We had not penetrated beyond half a mile before 
we came upon evident signs of our ursine enemy. 
At this the dogs commenced sniffing about in an 



INDIANS NOT BRAVE. 213 

animated manner, barking valorously, and throwing 
their long tails aloft. It was only, however, to drop 
them again the moment Master Bruin should choose 
to turn out and face them. I noticed a corresponding 
behaviour in the Indians, especially Klue. As if in 
expectation of a triumphant encounter with the 
"King of the Forest" on Queen Charlotte Islands, 
the chief took to handling his rifle in a fiercely 
determined manner, whilst his dark eyes rolled and 
glistened ; but I knew that, like the dogs, he too would 
be sure to lose all his courage exactly at the time he 
required it most. 

I cannot conceive how it is that Indians have the 
reputation of being so brave and reckless of danger. 
In all my travels I never met with a really brave 
man among them, unless it be Jim, my old Cascade 
guide. If Indians are palpably superior in number 
to their opponents, they will perhaps show fight, 
though by no means always even then. But if it 
should appear that they are only equal, their anta- 
gonists having the advantage of position, they will 
fly as fast as their legs can carry them. Their 
bravery generally lasts no more than a few minutes, 
during which time they will do any amount of talk- 
ing and gesticulating; but in the event of an enemy. 



214 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

surprising them, they will all fire at the same instant, 
and then run for their lives like deer, their shots 
whizzing harmlessly through the air. Indians are no 
marksmen, either. I once recollect seeing a rifle and 
twelve muskets discharged by as many Indians at an 
otter ; and yet every man of them failed to hit the 
animal, though they were within ten feet of him. It 
was I who first observed the otter, and I of course 
wanted to pot him myself. But such was their in- 
tense anxiety to secure the prey for their own pur- 
poses, that I indulged one of the Indians with my 
Enfield. He fired ludicrously wide of his aim; and 
the ball, ricochetting from the rocks, took a piece 
clean out of the broad-brimmed hat of a Klootchman 
who chanced to be standing in a canoe down by the 
beach. The Indians are afraid to fire in fact, and 
generally shut their eyes for the operation. Yet I have 
also heard them described as crack shots, and their 
supposed exploits praised in just such terms as one 
might use in speaking of a Tyrolese chamois-hunter. 
Nobody, however, who has more than a mere casual 
acquaintance with the North Pacific tribes can 
seriously hold that opinion. I account for the illu- 
sion thus. When an Indian is hungry or in search 
of food, he husbands his powder to an extraordinary 



INDIANS NO MARKSMEN. 215 

degree. Usually, he will crawl up on all fours, pre- 
cisely as a tiger might, to within easy distance of his 
game ; but he never fires till he feels certain of killing. 
From our log-house door, I have frequently seen 
sportsmen of this calibre out on the rocks to the right, 
patiently waiting and watching a whole day, and some- 
times a night, in order to get a sure shot at a solitary 
seal which happened to be lurking near. At last 
the ambuscader would fire, and tremendous would 
be the excitement on shore. Other Indians, unseen 
before, but likewise ambuscaders, would rush from 
behind crags and trees, and in five seconds paddle 
off in canoes to where the poor seal had dived down, 
struggling for life among the kelp and sunken reefs. 
By-and-by the seal would rise, on which a general 
scramble would ensue, the canoes not unfrequently 
capsizing, to the disgust of the white-man eye-wit- 
ness, whose common sense tells him that needless 
noise is ruination to hunting. And so the game 
escapes quite as often as not. All the same, the 
man who shot the seal obtains great credit for his 
shooting, the manner of it being nowise considered. 
None of the Indian tribes in the North Pacific dis- 
play either real bravery or sporting qualities. 

But where was the promised bear-hunt? In the 



216 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

clouds, I may say. This was the first time, and like- 
wise the last, that I went on a hunting-expedition 
with Indians. I guessed how it would be ; but Klue 
over-persuaded me, and right well was I served. 
The bear had left evident traces of his predatory 
descent from the mountains, but, with such a pack of 
dogs or curs as accompanied us, he would have been 
a flat indeed to have waited till our party came up 
to him. The dogs, despite the commands of their 
master, given in language full and loud, barked away 
at the top of their canine voices, the echo seeming to 
dance from ravine to ravine into the recesses of the 
furthermost hills. How the Indians imagined they 
were going to entice the bear down in that fashion, I 
could not understand. It was, for all the world, as 
though some gentlemen in the burglary line had sent a 
letter over-night to say they might be expected to tap 
at the kitchen -window early next morning. Master 
Bruin very sensibly kept to his private apartments, 
knowing well that, under the present uncontrollable 
circumstances, he could not be tracked there in a day, 
or in many days. 

Consequently, after nine hours' laborious tramp 
through the dense underwood, including mazes and 
entanglements hardly to be believed, desperate fights 



BEAES IN NORTH AMERICA. 217 

to extricate oneself, and ruin to my habiliments, I 
regained the log-house, fagged beyond measure, 
laughably steak-less, but, on the whole, rather the 
better for the health-producing exercise. 

Although my luck in bear-hunting on Queen Char- 
lotte Islands stands below zero, I feel assured that 
bears must be very plentiful there. The Indians 
say they often see them, particularly when out with 
their canoes, and far away from their camps. The 
bear-lairs, however, are seldom disturbed ; partly be- 
cause of the natural density of the brushwood in the 
bush ; partly because of the uneven ground created 
by much fallen timber, and also by the large rock- 
boulders which for ages have come tumbling down 
periodically from the mountains, but chiefly because 
of the cowardly and silly ways of the Indians when 
they try to hunt. Bears, I should say, abound on 
Queen Charlotte Islands as much as in any other 
part of North America. Yet on the mainland they 
are not by any means so numerous as one hears they 
used to be. This is specially the case with regard 
to the grizzly bear, which species lingers more in 
southern latitudes. Ere long it will become very 
rare. But the other species — the common black 
bear, ursus arnericanus — will die out too. In a 



218 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

journey through British Columbia extending over 
two hundred miles, I only saw three specimens, and 
that was on the higher grounds above the fifty- 
second parallel of north latitude. 

No huntsman ought to go bear-killing without 
dogs, provided always that they can be made to hold 
their tongues while the game is being tracked. Odd 
as it may sound, those of the coward sort are the 
best. All animals, I believe, whether human or 
brute, dread an attack from behind. But bears have 
a specialty in that respect; and if the dogs are pro- 
perly trained to worry Bruin's hams, his bearship is 
sure to turn round upon them, and thus afford faci- 
lities to the huntsman for dealing him a fatal blow. 
Then I know the opinion prevails in Canada that a 
bear does not die suddenly. Should a bullet, it is 
said, strike him in an apparently mortal spot, he 
will often be saved by the quantity of fat which en- 
velops his flesh, and by cleverly stopping up the 
bullet-hole with grass — that is, if the dogs do not 
press him further; but well-trained dogs will leave 
a bear no time to stuff the grass into his wound, and 
so they literally do worry him to death. How far 
this theory is true I do not venture to determine, 
although I am disposed to credit it, because on more 



SLIGHT SNOW-FALL. 219 

than one occasion, when out alone in the Canadian 
bush, I have given the contents of my rifle to bears 
that came across my path, and yet I did not find 
their bodies afterwards.* 

I select the following from my Diary for the year : — 
" January Wth. — Snow fell the first time this 
Winter last week. The fall continued during the 
greater part of the week, but was of so slight a 
character that no snow remained on the ground 
above three hours at a time. 

* It may perhaps be allowed me to relate here a very narrow escape I 
had from a bear in Canada, the year before I went to British Columbia. It 
was the first of the genus I had seen in his wild state. The roads were 
very bad, just after the great springtide thaw, in fact axle-deep in mud. 
My journey was towards some mica-mines. About twelve miles from the 
town of Perth it occurred to me to make a short cut by taking a corduroy 
or side-line road, which divided a certain plantation in two. I had hardly 
entered the plantation, walking the horse all the time on account of the 
muddy ruts in the road, when a huge black bear jumped or rather 
clambered over the fence and coolly began shambling along by the side of 
my buggy or four-wheeled trap. This he continued with apparent uncon- 
cern for some two hundred yards. Arrived thus far, however, he seemed 
to think he might as well ride as walk \ for he growled, showed his 
grinders, and gave me significantly to understand that he intended possess- 
ing himself of both trap and driver. Fortunately at this point the road got 
much better. No sooner, then, did my uncanny fellow-traveller attempt to 
climb up into the trap than I brought down the butt-end of my whip with 
such a tremendous whack upon his snout that he let go the trap and reeled 
back on his haunches. The next moment I dropped the other end of the 
whip smartly over the sides of my trembling horse, and away the gallant 
animal flew at the top of his speed, never relaxing it until we had left 
Master Bruin a good mile behind, with his ugly nose out of joint, and doubt- 
less considerably astonished at this unlooked-for result of his manoeuvres. 



220 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

"The stormy-petrels have been paying us a visit. 
They seldom appear in these parts. We must, 
therefore, keep a sharp look-out for storm-weather, 
see to our log-house trimmings, and cut down some 
other trees, which I perceive threaten to overwhelm 
us. 

" My tide-pole has had a dirty time of it down 
among the wave-bedashed rocks. Certainly I might 
have pitched on a more sheltered position ; but it is 
the most convenient one, especially as I wish to take 
observations three times a day. During the last 
fortnight I have found a marked difference between 
the rise and fall of the day and night tides. In the 
daytime the water rises exactly twelve feet ; at night 
nine feet six inches only. While I was taking my 
observations this morning, I had an unexpected visit 
from Chief Skid-a-ga-tees, who has been lately rather 
fighting shy of us. The deep old rascal seemed very 
anxious to know what on earth I could be doing, and 
what my object was in watching and marking my 
tide-pole. However, as he had brought with him a 
basket of rock-bass fish and three fine geese (bernaclce 
canad r tenses) , I gave him some tobacco and biscuits 
in exchange : and so, with a shake of his paw, we 
have parted friends again till next time. 



STORMY-PETRELS. 221 

" January l%th. — The petrels are trustworthy, 
and no mistake. For this week past it has been 
storm-weather in earnest, the worst this season — so 
unbearably boisterous, in truth, as to have compelled 
all the Indians on Burnaby Island to quit their 
wigwam encampments, and to migrate, each tribe back 
to its own home, where, they tell me, the natural 
shelter and their housings are much more efficient. 

" I have never visited Skid-a-ga-tees in his ancestral 
domain : but if, as he says, he is better housed there 
than Skiddan is in his frame-house up north (query), 
what does he and half the Skid-a-ga-tees tribe mean 
by coming down here and encamping in the Winter- 
time, unless it is with the hope of getting something 
in the general scramble for our goods and chattels ? 
Perhaps they 'cutely foresee that crisis to be not so 
very distant. 

" There is no doubt that, if they had not gone off 
quickly as the storm began to rise, their large canoes 
would have been dashed to pieces on the rocks round 
Burnaby and Skincuttle. It was as much as we 
could do yesterday to save our small canoe. I have 
yet to traverse the Bay of Biscay; but assuredly I 
never beheld a sea more truly mountainous than 
what our eye-range can now take in, from east to 



222 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

west, opposite our log-house door. The wind has 
been a Nor-wester throughout. 

" To-day, the storm having somewhat abated, I killed 
a fine crow (corvus caurinus) with my Enfield rifle, 
as he was perched on the top of a tall pine-tree, at a 
distance of 750 yards.'' 

This last Diary note reminds me to say that, weather 
permitting, we used to have splendid rifle-practice 
at Burnaby. We could sit outside the log- 
house, and pop away at whales, porpoises, seals, 
grelies, or divers, any of which were as plentiful as 
salmon in the river Tay. The loons I found the 
most difficult to kill, as, the very instant you drew 
the trigger, down went their heads into the water. 
Either they must see the shot, or else their coating 
of feathers must be so close that shot will not pene- 
trate it. I should attribute it to a combination of both 
causes, for I have oftentimes hit a loon* when it was 
swimming from me, and yet not killed, or apparently 
even wounded, the creature. There was a long table 



* It seems difficult to account for the term "loon" being used to ex- 
press " a sorry fellow," as I see the dictionaries put it ; unless, indeed, 
"loon" be a corruption from some other word. For my part, I cannot 
imagine a more wide-awake piece of goods than the loon of Queen 
Charlotte Islands. Its name may come from the noise it makes, yet hardly. 



LOON-SHOOTING. 223 

of rock which shelved at an angle of 45° nearly down 
to the water-side. This shelf, being breast-high, made 
such convenient cover that rny rifle could barely be 
seen above it. I would frequently repair thither, to 
fire at the loons for an hour at a time, occasionally 
taking a companion to witness whether I really sent 
the shot home. But often, on his declaring that I 
did, the struck loon would just dip its head into the 
water, shake itself as though it had only been pep- 
pered with mud, and then quietly swim away out of 
gun-shot. Nevertheless, the shock, too, from the 
bullet must have been considerable. I remember 
also going out for a stroll along the shore, after that 
January storm, and firing at two large eagles — 
haliaeti leucocephali — with the same kind of shot. It 
had signally failed just before upon a tough little 
beggar of a loon; but one single shot sufficed to 
knock over both eagles. They were always a puzzle 
to us, were those loons. 

I recur to my Diary : — 

" January 25th. — Paddling yesterday afternoon 
to an islet a mile off, in a line towards Harriet Har- 
bour, what should I come upon, inside a sheltered 
cove, but my tide-pole? It had been carried away 
two miles in the late storm, and landed high and dry 



224 QUEEN CHAKLOTTE ISLANDS. 

b}^ the tide on a pebbly beach. Much trouble I have 
had to-day in refixing it, the slippery rocks render- 
ing a foothold hardly obtainable. But, as more 
trouble was required to make the pole, I am right 
glad to recover it. 

" Also, near Harriet Harbour, I picked up a live 
oyster seven inches in diameter, besides several smaller 
ones, all excellent eating. This find is important, as it 
proves beyond doubt the existence of oyster-beds 
close at hand. They lie probably in deep water : for 
the oysters I found yesterday lay high on the 
rocks, having evidently been washed up by a recent 
tide." 

" January 28^A. — We have had another stun- 
ning storm. Happily it was short. It commenced 
with one terrible flash of lightning, after which 
followed a fearful peal of thunder, then a heavy fall 
of hail, accompanied by gusts of wind that shook 
our stout little log-house like a plaything. This is 
only the second flash of lightning we have had this 
Winter. Thunderstorms are usual hereabouts in the 
Summer season, but very rare indeed in Winter. 
The Indians, who have only just returned here after 
their aquatic stampede, testify to this storm having 
been the most violent of any ever witnessed by that 



ANOTHER STORM. 225 

ubiquitous personage ' the oldest inhabitant.' They 
are not averse, I think, to regarding it as a prognostic 
of evil; but whether their superstition points to 
themselves or to us, would seem, so far, an unsettled 
point. The storm lasted all yesternight, till the 
morning sun dispersed it. 

" That first flash appears to have intimidated one 
of my men. I had just left him at the bottom of the 
shaft, trying to raise a large block of stone, when the 
flash came. The stone fell upon him, and his com- 
rades had to convey the poor fellow in an insensible 
state to the log-house. He has regained his con- 
sciousness, but will be confined to bed for some 
weeks yet. 

" One thing I am truly thankful for, namely, the 
safety of our gunpowder. I had not been able to 
make any provision against lightning, and was there- 
fore on tenterhooks the whole of the past night, not 
knowing the moment we might all be blown into 
the sea." 

This unfortunate accident added greatly to my 
troubles, for the men took advantage of it to 
become more mutinous than ever. I could scarce 
get them to put their hands to the work. 



226 



CHAPTER XV. 

SUMMER-LIKE WEATHER — "TRIBUTE AND TUT-WORK" — RIVAL TRIBES — 
RUNNING SHOUT OF PROVISIONS — THE " NANAIMO PACKET " ARRIVES— « 
MISTAKE ABOUT STORES — KLUE AND HIS TRIBE HAVE A DEBAUCH — 
WICKEDNESS AND SHORTSIGHTEDNESS OF SUPPLYING THE INDIANS 
WITH WHISKY — REMEDY FOR THE EVIL — MINING PROGRESS — THE 
SKID-A-GATES — MINERAL DEPOSITS OF QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

The 1st of February was ushered in with summer- 
like weather. 

My men, perhaps taking courage from it, began to 
work by tribute and tut- work* a not unfavourable 
sign, as I then persuaded myself, that the hopes of 
our Company might, after all, prove less delusive than 
I had been recently anticipating. 

At the same time two fresh hosts of Indians, 
deadly foes one tribe to the other, re-arrived at 
Burnaby together. The first belonged to a section 
of the Klue tribe, the others were Cape St. James 



* This is the old Cornish term, now used in America, for working by 
contract and division of labour, according to the species of operations the 
miners are engaged in. 



THE RIVALS. 227 

people, headed by their chief. These two tribes 
burned with jealous rivalry to secure the favour of 
the whites. The manner in which they set about it, 
however, was incomparably childish and ludicrous. 
Without meaning anything wrongful or offensive, at 
that time quite the opposite indeed, they would crowd 
round the shafts, or paddle after our canoe, each tribe 
elbowing its rival with such grotesque earnestness 
that often I had to hold my sides for laughter. 
Morning, noon, and night, they would beset our log- 
house, and our storehouse also, until I was forced to 
detail several men to stand sentry over us whilst we 
pursued our avocations. When, upon occasion, I 
allowed select parties of the rivals to come and sit 
with us in the log-house, it appears almost incredible 
how the great hulking fellows used to contend, like 
so many overgrown school-boys, for the best places 
near the fireplace, or the nearest to me on the 
benches, in order that the opposition should not be 
able to boast of having monopolized the wah-wah 
with the King- George- Tyhee Poole. Of course we 
took care to make no distinction; otherwise our 
position would have soon become untenable. 

My men's ardour was not of long duration. And 
here, I must own, they had some cause of complaint. 

Q 2 



228 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

The stock of provisions which I had last brought 
with me from Victoria was reckoned at four months. 
We were getting on towards the end of our tether, 
and yet no revictualling seemed at hand. It is easy 
to talk of over-anxiety; but imagine being on a 
semi-desert island, distant upwards of 200 miles from 
civilized beings, and possessing no possible means of 
communicating with them, save by tlie help of the 
savages who inhabit it. Nothing could compensate 
for such an isolation but thorough interest in the 
work before us, and as thorough confidence in our 
Company's solvency and foresight. I had both those 
moral aids at my command ; but the men's interest in 
the copper-find was merely accidental and mechanical, 
while the mere mention of possible short-commons 
sufficed to conjure up untold horrors in their crude 
minds. Naturally enough they looked to me who 
had taken them there, and upon me they vented 
their spleen when aught happened amiss. 

Daily I felt the responsibility more and more. 
My feelings may well be fancied, therefore, when, 
early on Sunday morning, February the 8th, the 
man whom I had appointed as victualler came to me 
to say that he feared the four months was a mistake, 
and that we only had food for three months. 



SHORT COMMONS. 229 

I immediately sallied forth to the storehouse, and 
finding after a careful inspection that what the man 
had suspected positively was the case, with a heavy 
heart I gave orders to weigh up the entire stock, 
preparatory to placing my party on reduced allow- 
ance. 

This was a black look-out, indeed ; for, I said to 
myself, with such a grievance, the rest of the men 
will certainly throw up their work and mutiny the 
moment the news gets wind amongst them. I then 
fully believed that in October there really had been 
some serious mistake on the part of the Company's 
agent at Victoria. Only one hope remained. Might 
I not have mistaken the period originally assigned? 
If so, we ought shortly to be relieved. It had been 
snowing more or less for two days. Now it was 
clearing. I would go and scan the wide ocean, and 
see whether the horizon did not perchance hold out 
some forlorn hope to us. 

In that desolate frame of mind I put down the 
weighing scales, and taking up my field-glass I pre- 
pared to mount the rocks which overhung our little 
settlement. No sooner had I begun the ascent, how- 
ever, than a vociferous hullaballoo from some Indians 
in a canoe assured me that something out of the way 



230 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

had occurred. Hurrying down to the beach I beheld 
to my inexpressible surprise and joy a good-sized 
schooner in the very act of rounding the point from 
the direction of Harriet Harbour, and bearing in for 
our landing-place. Never did shipwrecked mariner 
hail his ship-ahoy with more heartfelt delight. It 
was like an instantaneous response from heaven 
direct. 

The vessel proved to be the Nanaimo Packet, 
Captain T. Coffin, sent up by our Company with 
plenteous stores, and with four men to be employed 
at my discretion. It appeared the schooner had been 
lying-to in Harriet Harbour. She had got inside 
during a thick snowstorm ; and fearing to face the 
high sea then on, there she had lain, unobserved by 
any of us, for forty- eight hours. 

My four months' reckoning was a mistake, and it 
was not. We had been properly victualled for that 
period, but, whereas I erroneously counted it from the 
time of my departure from Victoria, the Company's 
agent had calculated from what he supposed would 
be the date of our arrival at Queen Charlotte. This 
explained both my miscount, and the vessel's coming 
to us about a fortnight before I should in all cases 
have looked for her. Happy mistake which served 



THE "nanaimo packet." 231 

us no worse. However, it did help me to realize 
keenly what the straits of our situation might very 
easily have become ; whilst I could not help sym- 
pathetically recurring to Wellington, when they sent 
a thousand left-footed boots for a regiment under his 
command in the Peninsula, and to our Commissary- 
General in the Crimea, when he received his ship- 
load of - green coffee for the " immediate use of the 
army." My Queen Charlotte Mining Company treated 
me better. 

I accepted three of the new-comers as miners at 
fifty-five dollars a month, and the fourth at fifty 
dollars as cook, besides board to all. Now fifty dollars 
being as nearly as possible ten pounds sterling, it 
follows that my cook's wages were at the rate of 
120/. a year. In other words, to induce a man to 
cook " plainly" for us on Queen Charlotte Islands, we 
had actually to pay him higher wages than a " pro- 
fessed cook" would receive in a nobleman's family in 
London. That item will give no bad idea of the 
immense outlay required for an undertaking such as 
our Company had embarked in. 

My little skit of a French cook I now discharged. 
And glad I was of the opportunity. Irrespective of 
his general good-for-nothingness, he had always been 



232 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

one of the worst of the grumblers, to say nothing of 
his having once, as already mentioned, seriously em- 
broiled us with Chief Skid-a-ga-tees. I also dismissed 
another mutinous miner. 

When the Indians had quite satisfied themselves 
that the Nanaimo Packet was not a " smoke-ship" 
with guns at long range, they flocked out to it by 
hundreds in their canoes, to see if they could not 
bag something. Great was the pleasure and pride of 
Klue, on detecting four of his own tribe, grinning at 
him over the schooner's taffrail. These fellows had 
been down at Victoria all the Winter. Klue knew by 
instinct that his tribe would have a " dram all round" 
of the infernal " fire-water," whilst the Cape St. James 
Indians would be condemned to look on with envious 
eyes and watering mouths, even Skid-a-ga-tees and 
his lot getting only a sop ; and so it eventuated. This 
quadruple piece of rascality had come back, sporting 
no superfluous luggage, but carrying between them, 
just as one might treasure ingots of gold, a large barrel 
of whisky, which pint by pint, I may say, they had 
earned and stored up at Victoria, with a view to a 
single day's gratification at home. What was the 
result? No advice, no entreaty, no menace, nothing 
availed from me. Swallow the " fire- water" they 



INDIAN WHISKY-DRINKING. 233 

would and should. And hence within an hour's 
time after the first appearance of the schooner, Klue 
and all his tribe had drunk themselves mad. 

As soon as our stores had been landed, Captain 
Coffin hauled his vessel off two miles to W.S.W., to 
a safer anchorage, there to await my letters and 
reports for the capital. 

Concerning whisky- drinking among the natives, 
I cannot refrain from here putting forward a few 
reflections which I jotted down in my Diary, on 
the occasion of the debauch just mentioned : — 

" The so-called whisky which is shamelessly sold 
to the Indians by traders along the coast, or 
even by certain unprincipled merchants at Victoria, 
contains very little of what is wholesome or genuine 
liquor. What it really does contain is not generally 
known; but I hear on good authority that the bulk 
consists of water flavoured and coloured with grain- 
whisky in the smallest appreciable quantities. Its 
strength proceeds wholly from the blue-stone vitriol 
and nitric acid which the manufacturers largely 
infuse into it. The consequence is that, when the 
Indians imbibe this drink freely — and they always 
do so whenever they can get it — their naturally 
fiery temperaments are wrought up into a state of 



234 QUEEN CHAKLOTTE ISLANDS. 

savagery so intense as to leave no white man's life 
safe in their presence while they remain under its 
influence. I take it that to deliberately supply the 
Indians with such body-and-soul-destroying stuff is 
not only glaring wickedness but shortsighted un- 
wisdom in the highest degree. The trader who acts 
thus may receive a few valuable skins each time as 
his bargain, but each time also he contributes 
materially to the demoralization and probable ex- 
tinction of the very races to whom he looks as his 
producers in the trade. In my opinion there ought 
to be a most stringent law on that head through the 
whole extent of the British Columbian colonies. 
Heavy penalties should be inflicted, and enforced 
too, in the case of any one, no matter who, infringing 
it. Moreover, better bargains, I quite think, could 
be made with the native tribes by means of the 
trinket traffic, provided it were thoroughly under- 
stood amongst them that, by no means, were they 
in future to obtain the ' fire-water ' from one party 
more than another. I recollect seeing some tribes 
on the Fraser River pledging themselves to the 
missionaries who had gone to visit them. They 
promised never to taste spirituous liquors, and 
doubtless the pledge was meant to be kept. But an 



A STRINGENT REMEDY. 235 

Indian is the veriest of babies. However ardently 
lie may have pledged his word, let his missionary 
leave the camp only for a few days, and he is a ready 
prey to the first pedlar who may chance to tramp in 
there. The pedlar perhaps has no evil intentions. 
Woe betide him, however, if he should betray that 
he possesses the merest flask of spirits. The whole 
tribe will cling to him like bits of steel to a magnet. 
Should he happen to take a taste himself, it is 
absolutely impossible for the Indians to resist. They 
will wrest the liquid fire from him, as many as can 
will gulp it, and then all is over with them. 
Again, permanent supervision alone reforms the 
Indian. Now, in a place such as Queen Charlotte 
Islands, where no tramps can pass through, an Indian 
mission might be most profitably established. But 
then, as an indispensable condition of success, every 
vessel, boat, or canoe coming to these islands, would 
have to be overhauled and well searched for spirits. 
More than this, every captain or trader wishing to 
land here should be legally compelled, before he puts 
his foot on shore, to bind himself by oath that he 
will not supply the natives with spirits. It would be 
despotism, no doubt. I hate despotic laws as a rule, 
yet betimes they become a rigorous necessity. And 



236 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

here is an evident case, in which the sole alternative 
between certain ruin and rescue lies in despotic 
legislation, be it as paternal as you will. Only, 
nothing but despotism, wisely forecasting and ever 
vigilant, can save the work of perhaps entire years 
being thus undone in one single day." 

Some days subsequent to Klue's drunken debauch, 
an Indian of his tribe stole a pair of shoes belonging 
to one of my men, upon which I went down to both 
the rival camps and informed the chiefs severally 
that in future no Indian of either tribe should enter 
our log-house. This was to prevent one tribe from 
blaming the other for stealing. But, also, having in 
my possession a fur skin and a musket, the respective 
owners of which lived in different camps, I gave 
notice that I should retain both articles until the shoes 
were returned. It had the desired effect. Late in 
the evening I was pleased to see Klue himself coming 
up with the identical pair of shoes in his hand. It 
satisfied me that those whom we had long suspected 
were in reality the principal thieves round about us. 
Yet Klue's sorrow at one of his own subjects having 
committed the theft added still more to my satisfac- 
tion; inasmuch as true reformation need never be 
despaired of for any man who makes a frank 



WINTEE SHORT AND MILD. 237 

acknowledgment, though his primary motive in 
doing so may not be of the very purest. I con- 
sidered this a favourable trait of character in Klue. 
As far as disposition can indicate a character, he was 
the best of his race. 

In Canada the coldest days of the year always 
come between the 20th and 25th of February. 
But though Queen Charlotte Islands lie very little 
higher up than the more inhabited parts of the 
Dominion, February the 25th had already seen us 
fairly into Spring. 

Our two Winters were, both of them, wonderfully 
short and mild. In truth, if I except the turbulent 
storm-weather which now and then assailed us, and 
the frequent yet not continuous rain, which the 
immense timberage of the islands well accounts for, 
we had properly speaking no Winter. Judging from 
the climate only, one certainly could not have sup- 
posed that we lay as near the Arctic Ocean as 
Labrador. It never was so cold as when a week's 
frost occurs in London. In short, the most graphic 
comparison I can draw is with the Northern Island 
of New Zealand or our own South Devon. 

The mining operations having much progressed 
during the past twelvemonth, the recurrence of fine 



238 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

weather produced a greater change in our regular 
business than it had done the year before. The rock 
down the shaft becoming every day softer, I was soon 
enabled to sink to an average depth of four feet six 
inches a week, instead of as many inches, which was 
what our weekly work about amounted to through 
the Winter season. 

The weather on the 1st of March being all that 
could be desired, I took several of my men out with 
me, intending to continue my prospecting. Follow- 
ing up the course in a line nearly N.W. from our 
main shaft, I discerned strong cupriferous indications 
for a length of 400 yards. I likewise unearthed 
some singularly fine specimens of conglomerate. 
These I brought back to the log-house, and, on 
analysis, found the percentage of copper in them to 
be so very satisfactory as to lead me to conclude that 
I must have struck the vein itself. 

That was a good day's work. 

During the following week the nature of the rock 
altered too much to allow me to attribute it to the 
weather alone. The blasting-powder would only 
penetrate the seams, and even then did such poor 
execution that I had to order the pole-pick to 
be used, as the more serviceable power of the 



MINING PROGRESS. 239 

two.* We advanced rapidly, and as the copper indi- 
cations improved both in quality and quantity at 
every step, the important fact was unquestionably 
settled that the true vein had indeed been struck. 

The matrix, or mother- vein, now principally deve- 
loped garnetiferous colours, namely, red, yellowish- 
red, brownish-red, and dark-brown. All the veins 
turned out to be both massive and crystallized, ex- 
hibiting the dodecahedron, with its modifications, 
opaque or feebly translucent struchore, lamellar, and 
granular. The lustre was glistening, the fracture 
uneven with marked brittleness, and the specific 
gravity 3*75. The three most common forms 
were : — 

1st. The dodecahedron, with rhombic faces, primi- 
tive form. 

2nd. A dark-green garnet,. a solid, with twenty-four 
trapezoidal faces. 



* The preceding week we sank down the shaft to an exact measurement 
of four feet four inches, consuming in the process twenty-five pounds of 
powder, 112 feet of fuse, four inches of steel, two bushels of charcoal, 
twenty-six candles, six boxes of matches, together with oil, soap, and 
grease — making a total in cost of materials of $19 73c. This well repre- 
sents the large expenditure requisite in the beginning of mining trans- 
actions, especially when carried on in Winter time, and without the aid 
of elaborate machinery. I have no note of the next week's expenditure ; 
but 1 remember it fell to quite one-third of the above. 



240 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

3rd. A yellowish-red (much fractured), with rhom- 
bic faces, showing the course of the fractures, 
which was uneven, to be conchoidal. 

The matrix measured rather more than two feet in 
thickness. But a distinct vein, two and three- 
quarter inches wide, soon showed itself; and I feel 
certain we should have eventually struck wider and 
thicker veins, if I had been able to develop in an 
oblique direction, as I hoped to do. 

While this was going on at the shaft, the Indians 
seemed all at once to take a lively interest in my 
copper speculations. Klue had always given me 
great assistance. He generally used to accompany 
me in my prospecting explorations. I instructed him 
how to look for copper; and, there is no doubt about 
it, he displayed a degree of intelligence, when en- 
couraged, far superior to any of the loutish white men 
with me. But now a daughter of George, one of the 
leading Cape St. James Indians, came and informed 
me of copper being down in her neighbourhood, at a 
spot which we called Antony Island. She produced 
specimens. I immediately detected the fraud, how- 
ever, her specimens being merely picks from a ton's 
weight I had procured on Jeffrey Island, not long 
after my first landing. When found out, the wench 



SKID-A-GATE CHANNEL. 241 

only laughed impudently. Skid-a-ga-tees also sent 
me messengers who reported having discovered 
copper somewhere on the coast above Silver Island, 
but I had no time then to go and verify it. The 
most probable account was that of another tribe, with 
a slightly different name, from whom in fact the 
Skid-a-gate Channel to the north of Moresby Island 
derives its designation.* The Skid-a-gates said, and 



* No intelligent white man, that I know of, has ever rightly explored the 
country of the Skid-a-gates, or, in this century, any portion of Queen 
Charlotte Islands higher than Skiddan and Cum-she-was Harbours, which 
I myself visited. 

In 1852 the Hudson's Bay Company sent a small expedition under the com- 
mand of a Captain Mitchell, to search for gold on the western coast of 
Moresby Island. In 1859, one Mr. Downie, an old Californian miner and 
explorer, led another party of twenty-seven men from Victoria to Gold 
Harbour, afterwards proceeding to Skid-a-gate Channel. A Captain 
Torrens followed in the same year. But all three parties were intent on 
the gold quest only, and almost immediately returned, Captain Torrens 
and his men having narrowly missed being murdered by the then hostile 
Skid-a-gates. 

Captain Cook, R.N., in his Voyage to the Pacific Ocean (vol. ii.), gives a 
description of the appearance, which the northern coast of the islands pre- 
sented from his ships ; and an account of the western coast of Graham Island 
may be seen in Captain Dixon's Voyage to the North-west Coast of America, 
with views. 

But the exploration of Skid-a-gate Channel and its surroundings is an 
undertaking yet to come. Captain Torrens, in his Report, says : " The 
country north of Skid-a-gate Channel is low, and thickly wooded, reced- 
ing in one unbroken level towards a huge range of mountains about thirty 
miles off. Vegetation is there luxuriant, and at intervals patches of open 
land occur, in which the Indians have planted crops of turnips and potatoes." 
The Skid-a-gates unanimously described their country to me as flat, " good 

R 



242 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

I believed them, that a vein eight feet wide, and over 
two hundred yards in length, had been tracked in 
their country. They presented me with some splendid 
samples, which quite corroborated their statement. 
The chief earnestly pressing me to return with him 
and prospect the find, again I was obliged to reply 
that the time failed me. Here I should not omit to 
mention an extremely promising vein which I dis- 
covered in Sockalee Harbour, during the course of the 
foregoing Summer, as well as numbers of lesser veins, 
which I duly marked during a subsequent excursion, 
but never had opportunity to develop, around the 
shores of Harriet Harbour.* 

To sum up on the subject of copper. The geo- 
logical formation of the strata and my prospecting 

for growing potatoes," that is, for agricultural purposes, and full of excellent 
harbours. It strikes me as the most likely locality for the capital when 
civilization shall have reached the islands. 

* Mr. Downie, who, four years previous to the events here related, 
stopped a short time in Skid-a-gate Channel, reported that they found 
" trap and hornblende blocks, with a few poor seams of quartz" to the 
southward of the Channel. Northward, they found " coal, talcose slate, 
quartz, and red earth." All these were only in inappreciable quantities. 
Prom the samples of coal I saw at Victoria, however, I feel convinced that, 
for furnace purposes, the Queen Charlotte anthracite will eventually quite 
equal the famous Pennsylvanian. But, again, a paid-up capital of not less 
than 100,000/. would be required to put any coal-mine on the Islands into 
working order. As regards slate, the Skid-a-gate Indians brought me 
down a magnificent block of slate, as good as the finest Welsh slate. I 
secured a piece to carry home as a specimen. 



MINERAL DEPOSITS. 243 

combine to prove that Queen Charlotte Islands do 
contain immense mineral deposits. Gold is said to 
be there ; but in regard to the existence of extensive 
copper-fields, no doubt whatever now remains. Only, 
in my judgment, although we struck a matrix on 
Burnaby, the islands possess in other parts more 
ample fields, where a much larger profit will one day 
reward some enterprising speculators. 

I see every probability likewise of coal and slate 
being found on the islands in highly remunerative 
quantities. 



r 2 



244 



CHAPTER XVI. 

DISORGANIZATION — IMPOSSIBILITY OP CONTROLLING THE MEN — A SALIENT 
EXAMPLE — GLARING THEPTS BY INDIANS — CONSULTATION WITH KLUE 
AND SKID-A-GA-TEES — DETERMINATION TO RETURN TO VICTORIA — 
DIFFICULTY OF THE VOYAGE — KiUE's GRAND CANOE — LAST CHANCE TO 
THE MEN — HARRIET HARBOUR. 

My little colony on Burnaby Island now began to 
evince such signs of disorganization that the time 
of its dissolution, I plainly saw, must be fast ap- 
proaching. 

It became an absolute impossibility to control the 
men, and unfortunately they knew it. Talk and 
persuasion may do for a short time ; but I can think 
of no state of society in which the power of enforcing 
the law is not the first of necessities. Except the 
isolation and our unsettled condition, my men had 
not a rational ground of complaint. They were 
fairly housed, sufficiently fed, and splendidly paid. 
Yet the mere fact of our Company's interests being 
placed so manifestly in their hands, instead of giving 
some zest to the work, seemed to suggest to the 



FREQUENT QUARRELLING. 245 

scoundrels to take every mean and dastardly ad- 
vantage. It will doubtless excite surprise that men 
who had to earn their bread should misconduct 
themselves as these did, considering the assured means 
of subsistence they were thus dragging from under 
their own feet. The greater bait in the distance, 
however, nullified every present argument ; for be 
it remembered that the only workmen then available 
at our copper mines, were those who wanted about 
as much as they could earn in a couple of months to 
enable them to go off on their own hook to the 
gold-fields of Cariboo, 

Besides, frequent quarrels arose between our party 
and the various tribes of Indians. I do not mean 
to say that the Indians were not often in fault. I 
found those poor untutored savages, taken by them- 
selves, to have good and trusting dispositions, if 
trusted in turn and judiciously treated. But the 
example they had continually before their eyes in 
those white savages of mine was execrable, whilst 
quite as often the Indians appeared to be either wholly 
in the right, or to have suffered gross provocation. 

One day an Indian of the Klue tribe received 
unmentionable ill-usage from one of my latest comers. 
This so exasperated the injured individual that it cost 



246 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

me a world of trouble to prevent a general melee. 
As it was, the Indian, seeing my real want of power, 
passionately declared he would shoot down the first 
white man who should venture to pass the bounds of 
the Klue encampment. To whom could I impute 
blame? Added to this actively disorganizing source, 
was its usual correlative, namely, too great a fami- 
liarity with the Indians. It sometimes worked in a 
reactionary spirit after a quarrel, but more frequently 
it provoked another. When the days had perceptibly 
lengthened my men spent nearly the whole of their 
off-time in the wigwams of the Indians, turning a 
deaf ear to all my admonitions, remonstrances, or 
entreaties. The consequences to be expected from 
such a course were obvious to my mind, and I was 
not deceived. It effectually emancipated the men 
from everything save the merest semblance of control. 
They worked when they liked, and left off when they 
chose, the mass of the Indians correspondingly 
losing the respect they used to have for my authority 
or influence. 

I will give one salient example of what we shortly 
came to be reduced to. One evening I was employed 
making entries in my Diary, just inside the door of 
our log-house, when something darkened the thres- 



CAPE ST. JAMES INDIANS. 247 

hold. Looking up from my writing, I saw a surly 
Klue Indian, with a musket over his shoulder, and a 
Klootchman woman standing behind with a large box 
under her arm. At a sign from him of the musket 
the Klootchman advanced into the house, saying that- 
one of my workmen had told her to come and take up 
her residence there, and that her box of things was to 
go underneath his bunk. I could not of course mis- 
take the meaning of that. The proceeding was in- 
admissible for every moral and sanitary reason. 
Bat, besides, I might as well have relinquished the 
idea and object of my exploratory expedition alto- 
gether. If I was not to remain master, even in the 
log-house, there would be an end to all order and 
work in no time. I consequently made quick and 
fierce objection, upon which the Klootchman bride 
retired affrighted, but not until her escort had fired off 
his gun in front of the log-house and then defiantly 
presented it at me, as much as to imply that I owed my 
life to his magnanimity. Possibly it was so, for the 
next day we were simply inundated with natives, 
who seemed not to have the slightest notion of 
leaving me sole master of our chosen premises. Never 
having seen any of their faces till then, I could not at 
first conceive where they had ail come from. I soon 



248 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

learnt, however, that they formed a reinforcement of 
Cape St. James Indians, who had arrived in two large 
canoes during the night. It was easy to see, by their 
abandoned manner and the tricks they commenced 
playing, that they had been well primed beforehand 
as to the state of the case in the white men's camp, 
and deliberately intended to be troublesome to me. 
I counted a hundred and twenty- two of them. Not 
content with a mere visit, they encamped close to the 
log- house, regularly blockading it, threatening to burn 
it down, and then alternately singing, begging, 
dancing, stealing, so as to keep us idle for two or three 
days, and our minds, day and night, in such ferment 
and suspense that sleep was entirely out of the ques- 
tion. It ought to have taught my men a good lesson, 
for, had a massacre ensued, they would certainly have 
been included. But, instead of recognising in it the 
fruits of their stupid insubordination, hardly had this 
bullying ceased, or drawn off rather, than the fools 
went fraternizing again with the late arrivals as well 
as with the Klue Indians. 

From this time forth, loose living on the part of the 
men, and thieving on the side of the Indians, was the 
order of the day. 

I find these entries in my Diary : — 



A CLEVER THEFT. 249 

u March lith. — Last night, while the day-shift 
men were asleep, with the door and window of the 
log-house left open for the sake of air, some Indians 
entered and took all the musket-powder we had left 
and all the bread we had baked. I happened to be down 
at the shaft myself, never conceiving it possible that 
my men would be such dolts as to allow themselves to 
be overreached in that manner. It was a sharp stroke 
of business for the Klue Indians. They were actually 
brazen and clever enough to abstract a powder flask 
and belt and a box of musket-caps from under the 
blacksmith's pillow without disturbing him or any 
one of the sleepers. At the moment that this crime 
was being perpetrated, a canoe belonging to Chief 
Skid-a-ga-tees, with two Indians half concealed in it, 
floated leisurely up and down in front of the shaft. 
This was a ruse to attract the attention of the 
shaftmen, and to make it appear afterwards as though 
old Skid-a-ga-tees himself had been implicated in 
the robbery. The Klue Indians had borrowed his 
canoe yesterday afternoon upon some pretence or 
other." 

u 15th. — A second glaring theft. As the shaft- 
men were away at dinner, a lot of Indians went 
down the shaft and walked off with all the candles. 



250 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

I believe the principal thieves are still the Klue 
tribe; but they have accomplices, I fancy. I did 
hope my men would have profited by the raid of 
two nights ago. It is exactly the reverse — they 
do not seem to care one straw; for to-day the 
guard refused to stay at the shaft during dinner- 
time. Of course the ever wide-awake Indians seized 
their opportunity. It begins to look like collusion, 
though I am loth to think it. 

u 16th. — Last evening, again, I was myself going 
towards the shaft, while the night-shift had their 
supper, when I espied a certain Klue Indian whom 
we call Buckshot, darting away from near the 
works. I made after him, and found nothing; but 
for all that, on my examining the mining-munition, 
a dozen large candles, a can- full of blasting powder, 
and our best sledge-hammer were seen to be missing." 

In consequence of these barefaced thefts, I held a 
long consultation with Klue and old Skid-a-ga-tees, 
as the only chiefs who, in our then position of affairs, 
would be likely to listen to reason. I told Skid-a-ga- 
tees that, on the whole, I had little or no cause to 
find fault with his tribe since their hostile demon- 
stration soon after my first landing, and that, as far 
as I knew, they were guiltless in the recent robberies. 



FRIENDLY CHIEFS. 251 

Klue candidly confessed the delinquencies of his tribe, 
but assured me he had done what he could to correct 
their thieving propensities, and so far without result ; 
he would try to obtain the restoration of the stolen 
articles, and would continue to set his face against 
all thefts,* but I was not to suppose he had unlimited 
power. When I looked back to my own powerless- 
ness, and also bore in mind Klue's persistent friend- 
ship, I could not refuse this explanation. I informed 
the chiefs, however, that, unless matters took some 
unexpected turn, it would not be possible for me 
to carry out my original intention of living long 
amongst them, and of establishing a white man's 
colony on Queen Charlotte Islands. Both chiefs 
seemed truly grieved to hear this decision. Yet as 
its wisdom could not be disputed, they said they 
feared we must part. The consultation ended 
amicably. And heartily did that rejoice me, for 
it testified to the " difficulty " having proceeded on 
either side from the subordinates, not from the 
leaders. 

By this time, nevertheless, I had made up my 

* When subsequently I got Klue down to Victoria, I had him up before 
the Governor, Mr. Douglas (now Sir James Douglas), who spoke like a 
father to him. Klue expressed such contrition for the errors of his subjects, 
that I trust he has of his own accord induced them to mend their ways. 



252 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

mind that our exploration could not be pursued 
further on the present system. 

I determined, therefore, to go back to Victoria, 
give a full report of my discoveries, and then resign 
my position as Engineer to the Queen Charlotte 
Mining Company. 

However, the standing obstacle to every movement 
along the North Pacific coast ways met me at once. 
Where was I to find a conveyance? One morning 
Skid-a-ga-tees came over to tell me that a fellow of 
his just arrived from Graham Island had seen a ship 
up north eight days before, making towards Stickeen 
Eiver in the Russian settlements. When I state 
that I took seriously to calculating whether this 
vessel might not perchance call at our copper-mines 
on her return voyage to the capital, the anxious 
predicament in which real isolation sometimes places 
a man may be to some extent apprehended. 

At length the splendid weather suggested to me to 
risk the voyage in a canoe. No such a venture had 
ever before been made in that part of the world. I 
sounded Klue on the subject, and he looked aghast. 
But Indians only want a proper lead to be venture- 
some themselves. On my arguing the point with 
him he finally yielded, and a bargain was then and 



BARGAIN WITH KLUE. 253 

there concluded between us, he agreeing to take me 
down to Victoria in his largest canoe, and I covenant- 
ing to pay him at the same rate as if it were a 
schooner without provisions. 

The bargain had this limitation, that it was to be 
void if, within another month's time, my workmen 
should show satisfying symptoms of improvement. 
I knew they would not. Meanwhile, Klue was to 
make the necessary preparations, being careful to 
keep it a solemn secret until I gave him the word to 
speak. The poor savage kissed my hand in token of his 
fidelity, and I am not ashamed to own I experienced 
myself a kindred sensation about the region of the 
heart. 

We were in the first week of April. 

The past month, as regards mining work, had been 
an idle one; but the men, guessing probably what 
I was cogitating, here threw off the mask. Fore- 
casting that I should be obliged to pay them, work 
or no work, they deliberately left the shaft to its fate 
and made themselves comfortable. We had not 
reached the middle of April before the whole eight 
of them were to be seen lounging in and out of the 
log-house at all hours, their hands stuck significantly 
into their pockets, and their countenances thrusting 



254 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

defiance at me. When not engaged in this ex- 
emplary pursuit, they would go to sleep in the sun, 
like hogs, or, what was worse, saunter through any 
Indian camp that admitted them, till they got in- 
volved in a quarrel or other trouble. Their sole 
plea was that the supplies of maple- sugar* and grog 

* Sugar is as much a necessary as salt to the pioneer. Whether Queen 
Charlotte Islands will ever grow maple-sugar remains to be seen. But 
it is a staple with the Canadian farmers of the backwoods. What they 
will do there when all the maple-trees are cut down, it is hard to foresee. 
Even now, owing to the quantity of sapping trees which have of late 
years been felled, a sugar-famine would have already overtaken the country 
if it had not been for the prudent prevision of the Government of Canada, 
which opened a special commerce with the West Indies in 1866. Other- 
wise, the sugar would necessarily have had to come to Canada via England, 
and a requisite household article have been placed beyond the means of the 
poor settler. 

As maple-sapping is likely soon to become extinct, it may not be un- 
interesting to note the present process of manufacture in Canada. At the 
first genuine touch of Spring, when the sun burns hotly during the day, 
but while the snow is still on the ground and the nights are cold and frosty, 
the " sap begins to rise freely." On some Spring day, in the first week of 
March generally, the tallest and straightest trees are singled out, all around, 
and marked as sound for operation. Each of these trees is then bored to 
the inner bark with a gimlet, a loose spile or chip being inserted, which 
leaves a few inches projecting outside, for the sap to drop clear of the trunk 
into troughs or hollowed logs. The trees are allowed to run thus until the 
third day, about a pail-full having by that time exuded from each tree. A 
stout plug is then inserted in place of the loose chip, while the farm-boys 
carry off the contents of the troughs to a large boiler, which they find 
suspended from a horizontal pole, and which, again, canny hands have 
propped up with five forked sticks. Under the boiler roars a fire, in a 
continual state of red heat, till the end of the operation. To purify the sap, 
and give the maple a crystalline appearance, the farmers add a little lime and 
charcoal. As soon as the whole has been boiled to a proper consistency, it 



THE MUTINEERS. 255 

had failed. T felt extremely sorry for the sugar, but 
naturally enough not for the grog; and I said so 
openly. As neither defect could be then remedied, 
however, the revolt was not a simple strike. It was 
mutiny to all intents and purposes. Nothing indeed 
seemed wanted to complete the flagrant delict, unless, 
according to a hint I gave them, they liked to bind 
me hand and foot in the orthodox fashion. That 
experiment they declined, perhaps deeming it too 
dangerous. 

It struck me that, my authority being entirely 
gone, there might yet be a chance of these mis- 
guided louts coming round, if I were to withdraw 
somewhat from their society. I therefore resolved 
to profit by the time which remained to me to make 
an excursion or two, and while still at Burnaby to 
take my meals alone, to sleep out of doors when 
practicable, and to keep to myself as much as pos- 
sible. I only insisted on directing the distribution 
of the rations, which they did not oppose, partly 



is ladled out into moulds, and left to cool and harden before being sent off 
to market, where it mostly fetches id. to Qd. the pound. The same maple- 
trees are sapped every year running, for seven years, more or less. At the 
end of that period, the farmers know they may as well cut them down for 
firewood, all the virtue having been extracted, and the trees having become 
quite hollow in the centre. 



256 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

because it saved them the bother, partly through 
fear of my prosecuting them for stealing at some 
future day, in case they resisted. 

I then went out in our canoe for a couple of days 
westward, taking with me two of Klue's best Indians 
as paddlers. We first landed on a small rock of an 
island reported by the Indians to have been at one 
time on fire. I made a hasty examination, my pad- 
dlers not relishing a long stay from superstitious 
motives. There were clear traces of a recently ex- 
tinct volcano. I discovered a large bed of mundic, 
and also a boiling spring, in which I bathed. This 
was the islet I had visited in passing the year 
before, and named Yolcanic Island. A high wind 
springing up, we made the best of our way to Silver 
Island, and, encamping there for the night, paddled 
back next day to Burnaby. 

Klue telling me that the spring was considered a 
cure for all diseases, it occurred to me to return good 
for evil to one of my refractory comrades, and at the 
same time to test the curative qualities of the spring- 
water. Accordingly I advised our blacksmith, who 
had fallen very ill with rheumatic fever, to take a 
canoe and try Volcanic Island. The man took the 
canoe and my advice too; and in a few days he 



THE SKID-A-GATES. 25 7 

reappeared at Burnaby, not only fully restored in 
bodily health, but quite altered in a moral sense also. 
Devoutly did I wish to souse my other comrades in 
that miraculous spring. They chose, however, to go 
on riding the high donkey. So I left them to their 
asinine amusement. 

Whilst the blacksmith was away, I one day had a 
formal wah-wah with the Skid-a-gate tribe. I found 
their camp clean and orderly beyond the others. In 
my opinion the Skid-a-gates are much the most 
intelligent race of any on Queen Charlotte Islands. 
I think great things might be done for them. But 
it would require a devoted man like Mr. Duncan, of 
the Metlakatlah mission, who has completely reformed 
the tribes in the Fort Simpson section on the main- 
land.* The Skid-a-gates impressed me so favourably 
in general that I regretted nothing so much as to have 
to quit Queen Charlotte Islands without visiting the 



* Mr. Duncan's self-denying labours are referred to with just admira- 
tion by Mr. Macfie, F.R.G.S., in his Vancouver Island and British 
Columbia (pp. 476-86). and likewise by Commander Mayne, E.N., who 
in his Four Years in British Columbia, gives (pp. 279-95 and p. 305), 
interesting extracts from Mr. Duncan's own Journal. The most com- 
prehensive account, however, of the work of reformation which has been 
accomplished among the Tsimsheean Indians, is to be found in a series of 
graphic papers, published in Mission Life magazine (vol. for 1871), and 
entitled Stranger than Fiction. Never was title truer. 

S 



258 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

tribe in their home. They showed me beautifully 
wrought articles of their own design and make, and 
amongst them some flutes manufactured from an 
unctuous blue slate. I bought one for five dollars. 
It was well worth the price. The two ends were 
inlaid with lead, giving the idea of a fine silver- 
mounting. Two of the keys perfectly represented frogs 
in a sitting posture, the eyes being picked out with 
burnished lead. A more admirable sample of native 
workmanship I never saw. It would have done 
credit to a European modeller. 

I now turned to a short excursion which Klue had 
been planning for me. He said that, before I left, 
I ought to make a thorough inspection of the place, 
which already, at a distance, I had named Harriet 
Harbour; and from all accounts of it I agreed with him. 

For this excursion I only took Klue himself and 
his little daughter, six years old ; and, in order to 
economize our forces, there being but three of us, I 
selected the chief's own private canoe, the very 
smallest on all the coast, and one easily managed 
along steep or shallow shores alike, up creeks or over 
rapids. It was scooped out of a solid cedar-trunk, and 
measured nine feet long, two feet four inches wide, 
and fifteen inches deep. 



A TINY CANOE. 259 

In this frail skiff we three put off together one 
morning from Skincuttle for the mainland of Queen 
Charlotte. Scarce had we cleared Skincuttle when 
up went the little canoe, head to the wind, her tiny 
bit of canvas flapping with a noise like distant 
thunder, and to an inexperienced eye seemingly in 
desperate disorder, until, paying off by degrees on the 
other tack, the sail filled out stiff; upon which the 
canoe heeled over to the other side and darted away 
as swiftly as a swallow, here leaping nimbly across 
the heavy seas, there staggering so uncomfortably 
under her canvas as to warrant the conjecture that 
we should speedily be consigned to a watery grave. 
But there was no fear of the contingency while I had 
two such good pilots in charge as Klue, who sat 
in the bow, and his daughter, who held the helm. 
Thus we tore along for about an hour through a 
thick mist which prevented our seeing ten yards 
fore or aft. At the end of that time the sun burst 
through the mist, and, rolling it up as if it were a 
yard or two of mere curtain, disclosed to my relieved 
eyes that Klue's instinct had guided our barque 
safely to the right spot, and within the right space of 
time. 

For close in front of us lay stretched out a truly 

s 2 



260 QUEEN CHAKLOTTE ISLANDS. 

splendid bay, more than a mile wide and fully two 
miles deep. 

This was Harriet Harbour. 

Having often viewed it from my canoe in paddling 
about, or from Burnaby Island with my glasses, I 
had long wished to be able to come and see it near. 
But nothing had prepared me for such a scene of 
beauty. 

At the mouth of the bay is an islet some two acres 
in extent, which acts as a breakwater, and very 
effectively protects the harbour from the only wind 
(N.E.) that could assail it. The water inside conse- 
quently enjoys a perpetual calm. All round the other 
three sides are beautiful highlands, rocky and beachy 
towards the bottom, but otherwise densely wooded, 
and forming a superb panorama to our view as we 
leisurely paddled in. 

We ran the canoe upon a rocky piece of shore two 
hundred yards beyond the N.E. point of entrance. 

I had no sooner stepped out upon the land than 
my pocket-compass began ticking in a violent manner, 
by which I knew that the rocks must be one mass 
of iron ; and so they proved. Purer crystallized mag- 
netic iron ore I have never anywhere lighted on. 
My subsequent analysis of this ore gave — 



HARRIET HARBOUR. 261 

Protoxide of iron 4*60 

Peroxide of iron 82*30 

Silica (and carbonate of lime 0'60) 11 '60 

Sulphur 85 

Water and loss 65 

100-00 
Before evening I had surveyed the whole surround- 
ings. I discovered two good veins of copper, plenty 
of limestone, and clear evidence of the vicinity of 
coal; but the iron ore predominated. Timber too 
was so extraordinarily abundant, even for Queen 
Charlotte, as to seem to promise to supply genera- 
tions of future settlers with fuel and charcoal. A 
broad and clear stream flows from the S.E. into the 
head of the bay. Klue assured me the stream was 
a famous place for salmon-catching. The hills rise 
up from high -water level, at an angle of 75°, to about 
700 feet. Taken altogether, a more charming and 
more useful harbour of the same magnitude does 
not exist to my knowledge in the North Pacific. 
From want of a line I did not fathom the water ; but 
a practised eye sees at a glance that the depths of the 
water will correspond to the steep heights above it. 
The bottom is evidently rock or gravel. Hence 
there never can be any danger of a filling-up, such 



262 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

as must always be the weak point at Victoria. 
Twenty ships of the line, I do not hesitate to say, 
could ride there at anchor together, with safety and 
convenience, to say nothing of other craft. 

Darkness being near, and Klue not liking to 
return at that late hour in his frail canoe, we 
decided to rig a tent with the sail and a blanket, and 
to stay the night out. 

Whilst he arranged the tent I rambled about the 
hills and beach for two hours, to probe the ground 
and scan the glowing landscape. Rich in quality and 
inexhaustible in quantity is the store there furnish- 
ing subsistence for living creatures. Every foot above 
and down the hill-sides is clad with shrubs, which 
bend to the earth with the weight of exquisite fruits, 
little mountain-springs meandering hither and 
thither through them. These springlets are a cha- 
racteristic of Queen Charlotte Islands; but I had 
nowhere observed them in such marvellous abundance 
as round Harriet Harbour. Unless you watch very 
closely you are sure to pass them by, so completely 
does the vegetation bridge them over. As I descended 
to the grand sweep of gravelly beach which heads the 
harbour, the land became leveller at each step, but 
the timber and underwood thicker. 



A FUTURE TOWN. 263 

I stood by the beach for fully half an hour, think- 
ing how difficult it would be to find a sweeter spot 
in all the world, and how at no distant date that very 
beach would assuredly give way to the wharves and 
landing-places of a flourishing commercial town. 
Harriet Harbour has only to be known in order to 
be seized upon in the interests of trade and coloniza- 
tion. 

Kegaining the tent, I squatted down to a picnic 
supper. Everything was laid out in true Indian 
style, the two Indians standing up before me to see 
that I enjoyed my repast. I might have done more 
justice to their humble yet wholesome fare, if I had 
not been previously indulging in the delicious 
berries* which line the harbour-sides. However, my 
bright-eyed little helmswoman was irresistible. So 
I ate and relished the supper. Thereupon the 
Klootchman girl (six years old, mind) proposed that 
King-George-Tyhee-Poole should go to bed, so as to be 
up betimes in the morning. Not to hurt their feelings, 

* These berries, so far without any name that I know, grow in remark- 
able quantities all over Queen Charlotte Islands. The plant is a shrub, 
generally four feet high. The leaves resemble those of our pear-tree, only 
that they are much smaller. The fruit itself is about the size of a wild 
gooseberry, and quite preservable by drying in the sun, after the manner 
of Malaga raisins. It contains a good deal of nourishment, and forms the 
principal food of the natives during the Winter season. 



264 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

I submitted to their well-meant kindness, taking off 
my upper garments and laying myself down in the 
tent, sub tegmine of a wide-spreading cedar-tree, 
while six-year-old rolled a blanket round me, and 
with a winning grace tucked me in all right and 
tight for the night. I then perceived what they 
were after; for hardly did I appear to them to 
settle to sleep, when father and daughter made off in 
the canoe to catch a few fish for the morrow's 
breakfast. When they came back an hour later, it 
was with some fine salmon, which they quickly cut 
up to be ready for the morning's broil. Lastly, we 
all three huddled together under the same capacious 
blanket, the chief on my right and his Klootchie on 
my left, to court the favour of Morpheus. 

Next morning I completed my survey of the 
beautiful harbour, and in the afternoon bagged 
several kinds of wild duck, as follows : — anas boschas, 
or mallard, aythia vallisneria, or canvas-backed duck, 
bucephala albeola, or buffer-headed duck, melanetta 
velvetina, or velvet duck ; all which, being good eating, 
I kept to give to my recalcitrant crew at the log-house. 

Chief Klue, Miss Klue, and myself then entrusted 
our lives once more to the miniature canoe, and by 
sundown we were on Burnaby Island. 



265 



CHAPTER XVII. 

PAULEY WITH THE MEN — EAREWELL TO THE BEAUTIFUL ISLES — EiUE's 
GRAND CANOE — ACROSS TO THE MAINLAND — PARTING COMPANY — MISS- 
ING THE WAY — SIX DAYS IN THE RAIN— THE SKID-A-GATES WELCOMED 
BACK. 

Another week at the log-house quite convinced me 
that to wait any longer with the hope of working the 
copper-mines would be only waste of time and money. 
Those of the Indians who had annoyed me kept 
aloof, it is true ; but my own men continued as in- 
tractable and dogged as ever. 

It was plain they wished to tire me out. 

I therefore summoned them all one day, and, 
without stooping to bandy words, I told them of my 
intention to proceed to Victoria forthwith, for the 
purpose of resigning my post, and that I should be 
under the necessity of reporting their insubordinate 
conduct and breach of contract to our Company's 
agent immediately on my reaching the capital. 

At first some of the ringleaders, looking out into 



266 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

the broad ocean, asked me jeeringly how I meant to 
go; whilst others affected to take it seriously, and 
begged me to intercede in their behalf with His 
Excellency, lest they should be sentenced and exe- 
cuted before they could make their wills. There was 
a total change of sentiment and tone, however, when, 
about noon that day, Klue's grand state-canoe, which 
my men had never seen and did not know of, came 
paddling and sailing like a huge swan round the 
headland. This proved to them that I both intended 
what I said, and was in a position to carry it out. 

I then briefly explained my plan. 

I should take back with me my account-books and 
all my personal effects. They should be left in re- 
sponsible charge of the mine and implements, and 
have a supply of ammunition for their own firearms, 
as well as sufficient provisions to last them until a 
vessel could arrive with fresh orders or to convey 
them down. I should pay their wages up to the day 
of my departure: if they had further claims, they 
must look to our Company. I think I dealt more fairly 
and forbearingly with my foolish party of miners 
than many another leader would have done. 

As soon as I had finished, one fellow pretended to 
feel for a small pistol he used to keep about him, 



PARLEY WITH THE MEN. 267 

whilst the others supported him in a low grumble. 
Upon that I simply glanced right and left, towards 
two crowds of Klue and Skid-a-gate Indians, who 
stood at a little distance ready to defend me. Deeply 
did I feel the humiliation of having to invoke the 
aid of an alien race against my fellow white men ; 
but they had persistently brought it upon themselves. 
It produced the desired effect, too. The men saw 
that, if they touched me, they would be certainly 
overwhelmed. So in a few moments they sullenly 
acquiesced. 

At last nothing remained but to get my things 
on board, which, by the help of my new travelling 
companions, was done during the afternoon. 

The day was the 6th of April ; and thus more than 
eighteen months had elapsed since I first landed from 
the Rebecca schooner on the adjacent island of Skin- 
cuttle. 

I had meantime fulfilled my mission, amidst very 
great difficulties, but not without a success sufficient 
to compensate for the outlay, if it did not " lead on 
to fortune " absolutely. 

The scene, as we pushed off from the beach below 
the log-house, is before me now. 

The workmen, no longer mine, hung surlily back. 



268 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

The rocks and woods, however, were filled with 
Indians, to see King-George-Tyhee-Poole sail away 
from amongst them. He was their good friend, they 
knew. They did not cheer, nor yet weep ; but they 
moved their arms up and down, with a sort of moan 
or wail. It would have been strange indeed if I had 
not reciprocated their feeling. 

At the same time the heavens were lit up in 
streaming splendour, while the sun began to sink 
low to the westward. But ere the red orb of day 
dipped behind its broken horizon, the eye of man 
caught a curved line running along the far east, from 
north to south. Although the distance to that dark- 
some object exceeded a hundred and twenty miles, 
the curve was distinguishable as part of the mighty 
range of the Cascade Mountains. Heaving up their 
giant ridges into the very clouds, they looked like 
barriers fit to mark an empire, or as what they are, 
the boundaries of nature itself. Between us lay, 
calm and serene, the wide waters of Queen Charlotte 
Sound, reflecting gloriously the golden hues of the 
realms above. 

With one steadfast gaze, then, upon the beautiful 
Isles of the Sea I was leaving, and one farewell wave 
of the hand towards Burnaby Island, I turned to 



elite's grand canoe. 269 

commit myself to the most arduous voyage perhaps 
ever made in the North Pacific Ocean. 

Our company consisted of two distinct parties. 

The first was made up of one of the Skid-a-gate 
chiefs and six of his tribe, three males and three 
females. They were in a cedar canoe, fourteen feet 
in length. It carried those seven persons, with their 
goods, weighing about half a ton, well: but it ap- 
peared a mere cock-boat in face of yon out-spanning 
ocean. 

Chief Klue, five young Klootchmen, and thirty 
men, together with myself, constituted the second or 
leading party. Besides our personal weight, we had 
shipped two tons of freight, namely, a bundle for 
each Indian, my goods and chattels, and the rest in 
copper or other ores. Our canoe was what is known 
in the Far West as a dug-out. Klue had cut and 
constructed it, foot by foot, with his own hands, out 
of cedar-wood {thuja gig anted). It carried three 
jury-masts and a considerable show of canvas, not 
to mention a main staysail. A proud and truly 
inspiriting sight was it to view all this canvas spread 
out to the breeze, and to see thirty-seven human 
beings all paddling together, with regularity, pre- 
cision, and force. 



270 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

The chief had carefully selected his crew. It was 
of course a pride to man his state-canoe with picked 
men ; but at that time of the year it became a strin- 
gent necessity, April being always a severe season on 
the North Pacific coast, and its storm- weather lasting 
frequently many days together without intermission. 
I found them a lively and intelligent body of Indians, 
both willing to work and able to master the stoutest 
elements. Pleasant was it in good sooth, after the 
ungenial behaviour of my miners on Burnaby Island, 
to pass several weeks in the company of those poor 
savages, whilst they sang the songs of their country, 
and kept exact time as they sang, to the dip of their 
broad paddles. Yet, despite my knowledge of Indian 
character, their cheerfulness at the outset of so 
dangerous a voyage rather astonished me; for not 
only had we winds and rains above us, and waters 
beneath us, to contend with; but tribes of bloodthirsty 
Indians, more than one of which were personally 
hostile to Klue, would likewise have to be en- 
countered all along the seaboard of British Columbia 
and the inner coastway of Vancouver, as we passed 
down them. 

In our circumstances the Inside Passage to Victoria 
presented peculiar features of danger. Nevertheless, 



THE START. 271 

I could not have counselled the Indians to adventure 
the Outside Passage in a simple canoe, albeit a first- 
class one. Either they would have been out of sight 
of land for many days, or they would have had to 
try the west coast of Vancouver, of which none of us 
knew anything. 

The evening of our start, therefore, we hugged the 
shore to the southward for about two hours, and at 
8 p.m. w r e drew up our canoes in the dark on a 
pebbly beach, fronting the broad strip of flattish land 
which stretches round from the mouth of Stewart's 
Channel near Cape St. James. This is the most 
southerly part of Queen Charlotte Islands, and our 
idea was to wait there for a fair wind, before 
attempting to cross the Sound. We hoped to make 
due east to the British Columbian mainland early 
next morning, so as to secure as much daylight as 
possible; but when morning came, seeing that a 
storm had partially arisen, the Indians unanimously 
voted against launching forth. The Klue Indians 
are reputed to be the most venturesome of all canoe- 
men in the North Pacific, and I do not wish to defame 
them, but the contrary. Still, it is always within 
sight of land. At the thought of trusting themselves 
to the high seas they quail. On this occasion they 



272 QUEEN CHAKLOTTE ISLANDS. 

would have shirked it altogether, only for their con- 
fidence in my guidance. There can be no doubt that 
Indians look upon the white men as superior beings, 
though they endeavour to conceal their conviction 
till it comes to the test. They were afraid, and 
manifestly regretted having set out on the ex- 
pedition. When I praised their skill and judgment, 
however, they would recover courage, until I 
chanced every now and again to cast my eyes 
towards the north-east. Then alarm would be de- 
picted on each man's countenance, especially on those 
of the chiefs, who would at once exclaim — Itka miha 
nanitch ? — what do you see ? 

Thus we waited forty-eight hours longer, en- 
camped in an old Indian ranche, which Klue said 
had been there time out of mind. 

The third morning we knew was going to be fine, 
for the storm had rolled oiF and the waves had 
smoothed down again. At daybreak, then, we went 
upon our way, pressing every stitch of canvas, with 
a smart but not unpleasant S.W. breeze. 

I cannot picture to myself anything more sublime 
in nature than the retrospective view which I had 
on bidding a last farewell to Queen Charlotte 
Islands. It is a land of enchantment. One can 



A RETROSPECT. 273 

hardly feel melancholy living by those beauteous 
though uninhabited shores. Such varied *and mag- 
nificent landscapes, such matchless timber, such a 
wealth of vegetation, such verdure and leafage up 
to the very crests of its highest hills. Its agri- 
cultural and mineral prospects are undeniable. 
Where does another climate exist like it, almost 
uniting the charms of the tropics to the healthiness 
of temperate zones, and yet remaining free from the 
evils of either ? No rat or reptile has fixed its home 
on those islands, nor even a noxious insect. The 
sole annoyance is an occasional mosquito,* which 
will grow rarer as cultivation advances. Fogs rarely 
visit there. The storms, if sometimes severe, seem 
mostly sea-storms, invariably following a law, and 
never lasting long. The snows on the coldest day 
in winter dissolve soon after touching the ground ; 
whilst the sun, during much the greater portion of 
the year, sheds its effulgence and its warmth, but 
not its glare, the whole of the live-long day, down 
upon that virgin country, as if to cheer its loneliness 
and to allure to it the colonists from afar. 



* Although the mosquito, by some singular exemption, to a great 
extent keeps clear of Queen Charlotte Islands, that plaguing insect 
flourishes in full force on the coast of the mainland, and in the bush of 
British Columbia. 



274 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

Just such a sunlit morn was it as we laid our- 
selves out for sea. I could not help sorrowing at the 
thought that I might never behold those Western 
Isles again; but I shipped my paddle in order to 
feast mine eyes once more upon their beauty. I 
watched their noble forms recede, I saw their peer- 
less complexion fade, I inhaled the breath of their 
sweet-scented cedar-wood until I felt it evaporate 
like some ethereal spirit. At length the Eden of the 
North Pacific vanished from my sight, and sank down 
into the deep blue waters of the West. 

The strength and skill of every man were now 
given to the arduous task before us. Onward we 
paddled, assisted by our sails, relays of the crew 
succeeding each other regularly, and sparing no 
effort, all day : not without reason either, for the sky 
lowered ominously, while the wind increased and the 
rain began to fall. It was getting on for six p.m., 
when a shout from an Indian in the bow told us that 
we had sighted the mainland on the other side of the 
Sound. 

The news raised our spirits somewhat ; but they 
were soon damped again, as almost immediately after 
it came on pitch dark, which caused us to lose the 
Skid-a-gate canoe out of hail, the wind changing and 



MISSING THE WAY. 275 

the rain descending at the same time in torrents. 
Nothing daunted, however, on we sped till about 
midnight, the wail of the land-fowl becoming more 
distinct with each mile we made. In a couple of 
hours Klue thought we should be close in-shore, and 
then we could heave-to and wait for the break of day. 
Away went the thirty-seven paddles ; but upwards 
of two hours passed and brought no sound of rollers 
on the beach. Odder still, the cry of the land-fowl 
had entirely ceased. Suddenly it occurred to me 
that we were going backwards instead of forwards. 
On my hinting this to my fellow-paddlers, they only 
laughed at what they thought was very pardonable 
ignorance. However, first one man shipped his 
paddle, then another, and at last, suspecting some- 
thing wrong, they all got thoroughly frightened. 
" Closl nanitch, Tyhee Poole, 1 ' shouted Klue from 
the helm where he was, meaning, " Do you look after 
the canoe, Chief Poole." Fortunately I had my best 
pocket-compass stowed somewhere ; so, striking a 
light with considerable difficulty, owing to the high 
wind and heavy sea, I found that we actually were 
going back, as straight as an arrow in its course. 
Putting a few facts together, I rapidly calculated 
our position to be some thirty miles from the shore. 

t2 



276 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

The two hours had been consequently time and 
labour lost. Upon the word we put the canoe's 
head about, and having vainly hailed the Skid-a- 
gates, we gave our hearts to our paddles with a 
will, and towards fi\e o'clock a.m. had the satis- 
faction to hear the breakers breaking on the rocks 
ahead. 

Shortly afterwards day dawned. 

The Skid-a-gates were nowhere visible; but our 
Indians recognised the land we had hit on as the 
south-east end of Banks's Island, and sure enough, 
close off the mainland. 

Observing a small harbour we ran in. It proved 
to be Calamity Harbour, in lat. 53° 12" N., long. 
128° 43" W. The distance from this spot to Vic- 
toria is perhaps 300 miles as the crow flies, but by 
the crooked course we intended to take, with a view 
of dodging the hostile tribes along the road down- 
ward, we reckoned on a distance of at least 750 miles. 

Here we had the good luck to find the beach 
covered with cockles. We gathered a large quantity, 
and, stringing them on sticks, half toasted them before 
the fire, so as to preserve them for food in case our 
other provisions should fail. The island, too, was 
alive with a species of sea-fowl, the flesh of which 



SIX DAYS IN THE RAIN. 277 

tastes like goose. I shot some; but the Indians, 
being very fond of thera, prepared torches for a great 
slaughter at night, in the event of the weather clear- 
ing. Unhappily the wet continued. It was as much 
as we could do to prevent our camp fire going out. 
I did dry my clothes, however ; and eventually haul- 
ing the canoe to a safe place and covering it up with 
sails, we each contrived to secure a dry spot under 
some trees where to lay our wearied heads ; for the 
night was again upon us, after thirty-six sleepless 
hours, during twenty-four of which we had con- 
tinuously paddled no less than 1 20 miles. 

Yet that now appears as nothing compared with 
our subsequent sufferings. 

Next morning, seeing no improvement in the 
weather, we set off again in the midst of a most 
dismal drizzle, which in the course of the day 
developed into strong rain. At this distance of time 
it scarcely seems credible to say that, for six days and 
six nights, we kept on our voyage in that pitiable 
plight, battling against fearful head-storms, and 
making barely fifty miles. It is the fact, though. 
Sleep became impossible, the rain having soaked our 
clothes and skins through and through. As each 
morning broke, in vain we strained our aching eye c ° 



278 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

to try to spy out something in the shape of a 
harbour. But it was not till the seventh day that 
one of our Klootchmen descried an object which on 
further observation we all pronounced to be a house. 
Surely a human habitation must bespeak the neigh- 
bourhood of a harbour of some sort? Without more 
parley, then, we steered in-shore, and in another 
hour we were entering a pretty little cove, headed 
by a beach which had shell-fish enough on it to 
supply a whole naval squadron for a week. Above, 
upon a conspicuous reach of ground, stood the large 
Indian ranche we had seen from the offing. It had 
not been recently occupied. Its dilapidated state 
proved that. But, after such misery as we had just 
undergone, we hailed it as one might a gorgeous 
palace, for the shelter, rest, and comfort it was 
about to afford us. 

We stayed twenty-four hours at the ranche — not 
at all too long to recruit. 

The following afternoon, feeling refreshed and 
hearty, I strolled by myself a short way into the 
bush. I was groping through the underwood, when 
a cry of distress from my party startled me. Making 
sure that they had been surprised by the Bella- 
afjja Indians, who claimed that part of the coast as 



THE WELCOME BACK. 279 

their camping-ground, I hastened back to the rescue, 
and arrived just in time to see a canoe hurrying 
away from the shore. It was the Skid-a-gates. A 
turn of the coast had brought our encampment into 
view, as their party came along, upon which a panic 
had seized them, and all Klue and his people could 
do to assure the Skid-a-gates that we were friends 
only urged them to fly the faster. I ran at once to 
the harbour's head, and, perching myself on the 
highest rock, waved my cap at the poor fellows with 
my utmost energy. They were already a good mile 
out to sea ; but noticing what I did, and knowing the 
waving of the hat to be the action of a white man 
they immediately turned back. 

Warmly did we welcome our lost companions. 

A sight to be remembered was it, to see how those 
savages greeted their old friends and neighbours. 
There was no kissing, nor embracing, nor shaking of 
hands, but a dance of the wildest description, that 
would have beaten the cancan all to fits, and have 
done one good to look at besides. Till then I had 
never remarked a genuine smile or tear on the face 
of a North Pacific Indian. The savages of both 
tribes danced in a circle together, the two chiefs 
capering more madly than any, whilst the air rang 



280 



QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 



again with shouts, until I put a stop to it by remind- 
ing them of the probability of their enemies being 
near at hand; on which they instantly desisted. 

The Skid-a-gate story was this. 

It seemed our canoe had been kept in view much 
longer than we had been able to discern theirs, its 
inferior size quite explaining the difference. Like 
us, they had hardly noticed the change of wind ; but, 
unlike us, when the critical moment came, instead of 
unwittingly turning back, they had gone northward, 
and had paddled away night and day out of sight of 
land, till at length they had accidentally sighted 
Fort Simpson, 200 miles above our landing-place on 
Banks's Island. At that point, after a needful rest 
and a solemn consultation, they had concluded that 
it must be right with the big canoe, since there was 
a white man in it. They had made all haste down 
the coast, in hopes of finding us waiting for them 
somewhere. And thus what we had been considering 
an awful hardship proved to be their deliverance; 
for without storm-weather in our part of the coast 
they would never have got over their part in time to 
overtake us. 

Right well did our friends merit their welcome. 
The endurance of the women deserved special praise. 



A LIFE-STRUGGLE. 281 

One and all had paddled for many consecutive days 
under the most hope-killing of circumstances, yet 
never losing either hope or courage. It was as 
desperate a life-struggle as ever I had heard of. 
Manfully they stood it too, and I told them so. 
Almost it persuaded me to retract my dictum re- 
garding Indian bravery. I perhaps should have 
retracted if the Skid-a-gates had, in this instance, 
been embarking of themselves in an enterprise. 
Their feat partook of that kind of heroism which 
consists in heroically saving your own life and the 
lives of others. 

If these poor Skid-a-gates had passed our en- 
campment without observing us, they certainly could 
not have reached their destination, for their little 
store would soon have been consumed. On the 
other hand, we could have ill spared them; for 
though we alone formed a stout party, with the 
Skid-a-gate contingent we were strong enough to give 
a tough fight to any antagonist who should dare 
to attack us. No one could tell but what the very 
next moment we might have to face the redoubted 
Bella-Bella Indians. As yet we had not learnt that 
the small-pox had succeeded in depriving the Bella- 
Bellas for evermore of the power of mischief. But 



282 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

hearing from Klue how that hated tribe had often 
inflicted dire injury on the Queen Charlotte Indians 
when these tried to get down to Victoria, I thought 
it behoved us to hold ourselves in constant readiness. 
The chiefs asked me to take the command in case 
of attack, to which I willingly acceded, and ac- 
cordingly gave the two crews the necessary 
instructions beforehand. Having at that period 
mastered rifle-practice to the extent of being able to 
bring down an eagle on the wing at six hundred 
yards, I may humbly recount that the Indians con- 
sidered me a host in myself. But besides my 
Enfield, we mustered thirty-two muskets, with 
ammunition to correspond, six revolvers, and any 
quantity of long knives. So that, unless the enemy 
were to take us one by one, I had no fear of a hostile 
encounter. 



283 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE RUPERT INDIANS — ERAY WITH THE ACOLTAS — OVER THE TIDAL WAVE 
— NANAIMO COAL-MINES — THE COWITCHENS — A GENERAL BATHE AND 
DRESS-DP — ARRIVAL AT VICTORIA. 

The Skid-a-gates had rested before they overtook 
our party, and, as we all felt anxious to put the 
country of the bloodthirsty Bella-Bellas quickly 
behind us, we re-embarked the same night in our two 
canoes, to proceed to the entrance of the Inside 
Passage. 

The wind was high and the tide was strong ; but 
both worked in our favour, so that, by two hours 
after midnight, flaring lights ahead gave warning 
of our having at last crossed Queen Charlotte 
Sound. 

Those lights were the hunting-fires of the Rupert 
Indians, within musket-range of whom we had now 
come. 

At this season of the year bird-slaughtering is very 
extensively carried on by all the North Pacific 
Indians. The birds, which are small but plump, 



284 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

burrow their holes in the sand-banks on the shore. 
When the slaughter-season arrives, the Indians pre- 
pare torches composed of long sticks having the tips 
smeared with gum taken from the pine-tree. Armed 
with handy clubs, they then place these lighted 
torches at the mouths of the holes, and as soon as 
the birds, attracted by the glare, flutter forth, they 
fell them to the ground. The process is simple and 
easy, immense numbers of birds being thus obtained. 
Afterwards, without any previous plucking or clean- 
ing, the birds are toasted before a slow fire. If 
the toasting has been properly done, the feathers and 
skin come off readily. The Indians say that, to clean 
the inside out, takes away from the flavour, which 
is perfectly true, as I have tasted the game both 
ways. 

Well, my party swelled with jealousy to see the 
Rupert Indians enjoying themselves so thoroughly. 
Yet they dared not venture nearer, lest the noise of 
our paddles should attract attention. Luckily the 
night was as dark as if we had been crossing the 
Styx in Charon's boat. But unless we intended to 
provoke a fight it now became an absolute neces- 
sity to paddle hard out of danger, for the wind was 
dying away. 



THE RUPERT INDIANS. 285 

Very fierce feelings existed between the Queen 
Charlotte and the Fort Rupert Indians. Klue in- 
formed me that, some years previous, his brother-in- 
law, in those days the greatest chief on the coast, had 
been entrapped by the Rupert Indians on his way 
home from Victoria, and scalped and killed with all 
his males, his females being divided as slaves among 
the victors. It was Klue's intention, when he had 
been recognised as chief by the other chiefs on 
Queen Charlotte Islands, to collect an overwhelming 
force and abolish the Fort Rupert tribe altogether.* 
If he could accomplish this, but not otherwise, he 
would be considered a great chief by his compatriots, 
and qualified to take his brother's place as the leading 
man amongst the tribes. 

Little did the Rupert Indians suspect that there 
was another grand prize ready-made for them, if, 
instead of indulging in the pleasures of bird-slaughter- 
ing, they had but kept a sharp look-out in the bay. 
They would have found us an expensive capture, 
notwithstanding. 

Before morning we had cleared the territory of 



* Chief Klue has never been able to conquer the Rupert Indians. His 
claim to the head-chieftainship is therefore still a moot point between 
him and the great chief of the Skiddans. 



286 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

this section of our enemies; but, it was to jump from 
the frying-pan into the fire. 

With the daylight the wind again rose, and by 
noon it had increased to a gale. Although the gale 
subsided, the weather continued so boisterous for the 
next few days that we had constantly to run in 
to the little coves which characterize the multitudi- 
nous island groups of the Inside Passage. 

One of these was the scene of an exciting adven- 
ture. 

I think we had paddled for a hundred hours well 
nigh continuously — in fact only stopping to hoist an 
occasional sail, or to take our food and an hour's rest 
in some sheltered spot. At last we thought of seek- 
ing some place where we might have a good meal and 
a regular lie-down. So, spying a likely-looking island 
in the centre of a large group, we made towards it 
and landed, fastening our canoes to the rocks. The 
men began at once to light a fire, and the women to 
get the shell-fish ready, whilst I, according to our 
established custom, trudged away into the bush in 
search of more substantial fare. I had not pene- 
trated fifty yards when a clump of thick brushwood 
near me appeared to rustle. Was it only the wind? 
Or was it a deer perhaps ? — deer being very numerous 



THE ACOLTAS. 287 

thereabouts. I stood still a moment, and then slowly 
went forward, fully expecting to bag my game. 
In place of the deer, however, a black object, with a 
brace of fiery eyeballs, lay crouching behind the 
clump and taking deliberate aim with a musket. I 
gave a yell, thinking to call my companions to the 
rescue; but it was too late. Having themselves 
observed several other Indians stealing down in my 
direction, they had already rushed to the canoes and 
were leaving me to be murdered. The strange savages, 
perceiving this, made a rapid dash. How I ever 
escaped the bullets from the dozen musket-shots simul- 
taneously fired at me has always seemed to me a 
marvel: but I ran like lightning to the beach. On came 
my enemies, now certain of an easy capture ; for by 
this time my friends had hauled off out of gun-range 
and sat poising their paddles and coolly looking to see 
the end. The situation I was in seemed desperate 
indeed; for what could one man do against two 
score of armed adversaries ? Suddenly a bright 
thought occurred to me, and I as quickly resolved to 
act upon it. Knowing the superstitious nature of 
those Indians, I told them in their own language that 
I possessed the power to destroy all black men 
opposed to me, and that I could command the very 



288 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

author of their existence, the black crow. This 
announcement rather staggered the savages. But 
the petty chief who headed them said they would 
not kill me, but capture me. With that intent they 
commenced advancing in a half-circle, as cautiously 
as cats. I grasped a six-barrelled revolver in my 
right hand, and a long Spanish knife in my left, my 
Enfield being slung over my shoulder. When they 
were within a dozen yards of me, I again urged them 
to retire at the peril of their lives. They replied 
that what they wanted was simply a wah-wah. I 
was not to be taken by duplicity, however. Seeing 
which, one hound partly raised his musket, and would 
have fired if I had not been too quick for him. With 
a deep groan he dropped to the earth. In an instant 
the whole pack were upon me ; and another of the 
hounds having emptied his barrel without effect, I 
made him spring at least three feet into the air before 
sending him to the " happy hunting-grounds." I 
discharged the revolver once more ; but, alas, it burst. 
Wherefore, thrusting that trusty old friend into my 
belt, I defended myself as best I could with the long 
knife, until, beginning to feel faint, I turned, dived 
into the sea, and swam to our canoe, into which I 
was dragged in a very exhausted condition. 



TRAVELLING BY CANOE. 289 

The bloodhounds, from whose jaws I had thus 
been snatched, were the Acolta Indians, a tribe 
which has given more trouble to the Colonial 
Government than any other along the coast. The 
murders and outrages they have committed on in- 
offensive and defenceless white men and women are 
innumerable. 

We did not land again for twenty-four hours. 
Even then we chose a very small islet, lying well 
apart, and which we first carefully examined in a 
prolonged paddle round it. 

Thus ended my canoe-voyage down the Inside 
Passage. 

We had to face many perils by land, and like- 
wise many perils by sea, similar to those I had faced 
during my two up-voyages,* with the manifest incon- 
veniences of canoe-travelling superadded. And yet 
it should not be supposed that a canoe, though in 
some respects greatly inferior to a decked and full- 
rigged vessel, is without its advantages. Canoes can 
go where schooners cannot, they run along more 



* I made two distinct voyages up the Inside Passage, besides this 
voyage down it. The first was on board the sloop Hamley, almost imme- 
diately after my arrival in the colony, and when bound for the Cascade 
Mountains. The second was on board the sloop Leonide, as related hereto- 
fore in the text. 



290 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

swiftly, and are much more easy to steer and manage ; 
whilst, along a savage-beridden coast like that of 
British Columbia, their greater facility for conceal- 
ment was not to be disregarded. 

As we sped onward the weather got gradually 
calmer. At length not a breath of wind stirred in 
the air, nor a ripple on the surface of the water. I 
would then frequently lie back across my broad 
seven-foot paddle, and enjoy that blessed institution, 
so conducive to the happiness of miners or travellers 
in uncouth countries, a pipe of good tobacco. My 
companions would always follow suit. Upon which 
our canoes would glide quietly down-channel, carried 
forward by the ebbing tide. 

One forenoon we were all taking the benefit of this 
welcome relaxation, wholly thoughtless of any im- 
pending danger, when suddenly every Indian sprang 
to his feet in a paroxysm of terror. Had we been 
surrounded on the instant by a hundred canoes full 
of war-savages, my companions could not have 
shown greater alarm; and the moment my eye 
caught what was before us, I entirely shared their 
feelings. Eight across our course, and not more than 
two hundred yards in our front, a long white line of 
foam seethed and boiled, and kept steadily advancing. 
It was the up-tide battling to predominate over the 



OVER THE TIDAL WAVE. 291 

down-tide, which again, burying itself beneath the 
crest of its more powerful opponent, formed an 
under-current, unimpeded, and yet, in conjunction 
with the stronger tide, indescribably dangerous. 
This is not a common occurrence in the Passage, 
but it does sometimes happen in its narrow parts. 
If we had met it at night, we should have failed to 
see the danger in time, and then nothing could have 
saved us. As things were, here we found ourselves 
locked into the narrowest reach of Johnstone Strait, 
with a line of angry surf running from shore to 
shore, and close ahead of the canoes. Should we 
survive? Two minutes more would decide. I do 
acknowledge, however, that my heart rose to my 
mouth, and that my blood seemed to freeze in my 
veins, as I looked death straight in the face : an ignoble 
death, and nobody left to tell the tale. Not a 
second was to be lost. Chief Klue roared to his 
men, Hinda, kauit-law, mammock clue anta quita, 
that is, u Be quick, sit down, and work the canoe with 
all your strength." Whereupon, dipping our paddles 
deep into the now rushing, now sinking tides, with 
four desperate strokes for life we lifted our noble 
canoe clean out of the water, and shot over the 
fearful surge. Nervous moments, never to be for- 

u 2 



292 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

gotten. But our difficulties had only commenced; 
for no sooner were we clear of this line of surf than 
one of the contending currents hurled us with 
electric velocity three-quarters of a mile nearer land. 
I thought we should have been dashed to bits against 
the rocks, and was making ready for a spring, when, 
lo and behold, another current spun our canoe round, 
and sent us, like a bolt from a bow, to the opposite 
shore, This was repeated several times in succession, 
not a soul on board uttering a sound. Each time, 
however, the canoe gained a little headway. On the 
last crossing we came to a sudden stop in mid- 
channel, and describing a circle thrice with most 
awful rapidity, we seemed to be on the very point 
of plunging headlong into the abyss. But the crisis 
had arrived. Up out of the united throats of the 
Indians such a yell was yelled as appeared to shake 
the very mountains to their foundations. Klue 
added the words, Mannock whatluwan, that is, 
u Paddle all together." We obeyed, and cleared the 
whirlpool at a bound. Thenceforward our task was 
confined to strong and steady paddling for about 
half an hour. When we shipped our paddles to rest 
once more, we looked back, horror-stricken, yet thank- 
ful, upon that terrible meeting of the waters. 



AT NANAIMO. 293 

I have here narrated the escape of Klue's canoe 
in particular. Naturally we had no eyes for aught 
but ourselves. None the less, our poor friends the 
Skid-a-gates must have incurred a far greater 
amount of danger. How indeed they got through, 
with their light craft, we never could comprehend. 

Two or three days more saw us paddling proudly 
into Nanaimo Harbour. 

We had a very cheering reception from the coal- 
mine people there, Klue's grand canoe and the re- 
cital of our adventures creating a special sensation ; 
and further excitement was infused into it by the ar- 
rival, shortly after ourselves, of the schooner Amelia, 
the captain of which reported that a vessel named 
the Thornton lay at Fort Rupert with only one man 
on board, the remainder of the crew having been 
murdered. The Acolta Indians were the murderers. 

That woful affair was briefly as follows. The 
Thornton chancing to be becalmed off the Acolta camp- 
ing-grounds, a number of canoes manned from the 
tribe went out alongside and demanded whisky. The 
captain refused for the best of all reasons, because he 
had none of the noxious drug on board. The savages, 
not believing him, thereupon fired at the crew, who 
were engaged in rigging up sail. The volley was so 



294 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

tremendous that the captain and all the men save 
one fell dead on the deck. The survivor fled into 
the cabin, and, seizing a revolver, began discharging 
it through the port-holes, which effectually frightened 
off the Indians ; for fancying from the rapid firing 
that there must be more white men concealed in the 
vessel, they skedaddled to the shore. The Thornton 
then fortunately drifted into a current, by means of 
which the saved man was enabled to steer his vessel 
to Fort Rupert. 

Had not we of Queen Charlotte Islands good cause 
to congratulate one another on having come thus far 
in safety ? 

At that epoch the Nanaimo settlement was kept 
perpetually agitated in consequence of reports, which 
used to arrive nearly every day, of the revolting cruel- 
ties practised by the Acolta and Cowitchen Indians 
on the too confiding white population. I remember, as 
one dreadful instance, the case of the Marks family, 
who, lately from England, had gone to squat on a 
plot close to Nanaimo. They were cruelly murdered, 
every one, the body of Miss Marks being discovered 
shockingly mutilated on the beach, and the bodies of 
the others not long afterwards in the bush. The 
Governor sent down three gunboats to the Cowitchen 



THE COWITCHENS. 295 

camping grounds, but it only resulted in a waste of 
powder and shot, the bloodhounds hiding themselves 
in the dense shrub wood of the country, and yet 
lurking near enough to shoot two of our British tars 
dead. The very morning we left Nanaimo another 
ship arrived from Victoria with the news that the 
Cowitchen Indians had attempted to capture the 
vessel, but that the crew, having the luck to be well 
armed and headed by a plucky captain, had been 
able to repulse the piratical savages. 

At Nanaimo our convoy was joined by a third 
canoe full of Indians, who, as friends of the Skid-a- 
gates, we allowed to accompany us. This raised our 
spirits ; for, if the whole Cowitchen tribe had now 
molested us, we should doubtless have given them 
more than they bargained for. When we passed their 
encampment, however, we found the tribe otherwise 
employed. Their wigwams were undergoing a shell- 
ing process from two English gunboats, whilst they 
themselves were sneaking into the bush in all direc- 
tions, or jumping into canoes along the shore. Meeting 
one runaway canoe, we gave it instant chase. It was 
as pretty a sight as one would wish to see in a day's 
paddling. But, with us in pursuit, the Cowitchens 
had not a chance, so that we soon made them heave-to. 



296 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

Nothing could well exceed the meanness and cowardice 
which the wretches then displayed. They threw 
away their paddles and muskets, and went down 
on their knees in the canoe, cringing, whining, 
and even shrieking. We might easily have shot or 
drowned every man of them. In the midst of it all, 
the grins, grimaces, and triumphant giggles of my 
own companions were highly amusing. They merely 
awaited a signal from me to fall to. I own I felt 
much inclined to give it ; but after we had held our 
prisoners in suspense awhile, I said that Englishmen 
scorned to take advantage of the weaker party, and 
so we let them go. The mercy thus extended to 
those merciless bullies rather troubled my conscience 
afterwards ; for during the following night we parted 
company with the friendly Indians who had joined 
us at Nanaimo. Their canoe was never heard of 
again, the general belief among the colonists seeming 
to be that it was cut off, undercover of the darkness, 
by the very Cowitchen canoe which we had spared 
the day before. 

From this point we paddled away at our ease and 
pleasure, the glass-like waters reflecting the brilliancy 
of the sun above, whilst once more the Indians sang 
me their farewell songs, until, on the twenty-second 



ARRIVAL AT VICTORIA. 297 

morning after our leaving Queen Charlotte Islands, 
the two canoes turned into a little sheltered bay just 
below the old Spanish Cape Gonzalez, and within 
six miles overland of Victoria. 

Stepping ashore on the diminutive beach of the 
place, we all bathed in the sea. My travelling com- 
panions then rummaged their bundles, and proceeded 
to don whatever pieces of clothing each man or 
woman possessed. This ceremony was preparatory 
to their presenting themselves at Victoria, where the 
law which compels blacks as well as whites to wear 
some sort of garment is rigidly enforced. 

After the grotesque and laughable performance of 
people trying to dress who are not accustomed to it 
had been satisfactorily gone through, we breakfasted 
in the midst of a shade-giving pine-grove. 

Finally I left Klue to " paddle his own canoe " 
round to Victoria Harbour, whilst I myself took the 
road by land. 

It need scarce be added that my unexpected ap- 
pearance in the capital, and my weather-worn looks, 
perfectly astonished the numerous friends who 
crowded round me. 

What did they not say as soon as they heard my 
story ? 



298 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

" You seem to have dropped from the clouds," ex- 
claimed Mr. R. George, our Company's trusty and 
indefatigable agent, expressing the legitimate asto- 
nishment of all the town. 

For we had indeed accomplished what was un- 
doubtingly acknowledged to be the greatest canoe 
voyage ever known in the North Pacific,* and that 
too along a coast full of dangers, in the short space of 
twenty-two days, and at a season of the year when 
all British Columbian vessels give the land a wide 
berth. 

* Perhaps it would not be too much to add, " or in the entire Pacific 
Ocean." Really the only voyage to compare with ours is the celebrated 
one made by Captain Bligh, R.N., after the mutiny of the Bounty. He 
went in an open boat from off Otaheite to the island of Timor, a distance 
of nearly 1200 miles. But, then, he had a compass and sextant with him, 
and a good keel to his boat. Besides, his whole crew numbered no more 
than eighteen — just half ours ; whilst, during all his voyage, there was 
nothing to fear from tides and currents, and nothing worth mentioning 
from hostile natives. 



299 



CHAPTER XIX. 

QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS — CLIMATE — HARBOURS — INLAND "WATERS — 
ROCKS — LAND — TREES — ERUITS — VEGETABLES — FISH — GAME — FUR — 
NATIVE TRIBES — THE MEN — THE WOMEN — COLOUR — FOOD — MEDICINE — 
GAMBLING — RELIGION — FEASTS — MUSIC— CAPABILITIES AND PROSPECTS 
OF THE ISLANDS. 

During my residence on Queen Charlotte Islands, I 
made many other observations, which, though they 
did not fall naturally into the course of the fore- 
going narrative, should not be omitted from these 
pages. 

I shall treat the subjects* summarily and categori- 
cally. 

Climate, — The average weather in British Columbia 
being acknowledged to resemble that of the north of 



* The particular observations which I was enabled to make during my 
residence, will be found to agree substantially with the general description 
of Queen Charlotte Islands published in 1787 by Captain Dixon. (Voyage 
to the North-West Passage of America. Letter xxxviii.) 



300 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

England, a good idea may be formed of the climate of 
Queen Charlotte Islands, when I report it as milder 
than that of any part of Scotland, or of Victoria, the 
capital of the colony. In Summer the heat averages 
less, while the Winter months are much warmer, the 
atmosphere at all times seeming clear, dry, and pure. 
The Autumn is decidedly the healthiest and pleasantest 
season there. The temperature, during my two 
Winters, was never lower than 8° below freezing point, 
and during my two Summers never higher than 80° 
in the shade. The mean temperature in the shade, 
throughout the year, was 68°. I calculated the rain- 
fall in January and February at 21 T V inches. The 
regular and steady winds dried the ground up 
quickly. Snow fell rarely, and always in small 
quantities, soon disappearing. I saw only two 
electric discharges, and witnessed only one thunder- 
storm, although that was undoubtedly the most 
violent I ever remember out of Canada. 

Also, as stated above, I kept a tide-pole in fair 
order for the months of January and February, 
marking the daily record accurately in my register. 
To be concise, I here give merely the sum-total of 
results, thus : — 



TIDES AND HARBOURS. 



301 



Meteorological Register. 

Burnaby Island, Queen Charlotte Islands, 

Latitude 52° 19' 30" North, Longitude 131° 11' 00" West. 















Clouds (a 
















Cloudy day 




1863. 


Direction of Wind. 


Total 


Total 


is represented 
by 10, a 

Cloudless day 
byO). 




Months. 








Quan- 
tity of 
Rain. 


Quan- 
tity of 
Snow. 


Bemarks. 




8 


2 


8 


Com- 


8 2 


8 






A.M. 


P.M. 


P.M. 


pass. 






A.M. P. 


H. P.M. 






1 




"i 


N.N.E. 


Inches. 


Inches. 






ft. in. 
Maximum rise of tide 14 10 
Minimum „ „ 11 9 




6 


"5 


5 


N.E. 














2 


1 


1 


E.N.E. 










High and low water, twice 




"i 


2 
1 


2 

1 


E. 
E.S.E. 










during the 24 hours. 


H 






1 


S.E. 












CS 




"i 


1 


S.S.E. 










At 5 p.m. on the 3rd one 






1 


1 


S. 










flash of lightning, at 7 p.m. 


te; 






1 


s.s.w. 










on the 26th one flash of 


< 


"6 


"5 


7 


S.W. 










lightning and one of 


1-9 


7 
2 

1 


5 
1 

2 


5 


w.s.w. 
w. 

W.N.W. 


... 








thunder. 
Tides stationary only about 




3 


4 


3 


N.W. 










30 minutes. 




1 


1 


2 


N.N.W. 


14ft 


3ft 


130 i< 


15 160 










1 


N. 


Inches. 


Inches. 




ft. in. 
Maximum rise of tide 15 3 










N.N.E. 




... 






Minimum „ „ 11 10 




13 


12 


12 

1 


N.E. 

E.N.E. 

E. 










High and low water, twice 
during the 24 hours. 










E.S.E. 












"3 


"4 


"3 


S.E. 










6 inches of snow fell on the 


< 


1 






S.S.E. 










7th, and 3 inches on the 


fc> 


1 


"i 




S. 










10th, but melted off same 


OS 

eq 


1 


3 


"i 


S.S.W. 










day. 


2 


2 


3 


s.w. 




... 








ft 


3 

1 

"2 
1 


2 

1 
1 
2 


3 

1 
1 
2 


w.s.w. 
w. 

W.N.W. 
N.W. 
N.N.W. 


7ft 


13ft 


16b i( 


)b 12b 





The tides vary from one to two knots an hour all 
round Burnaby Island. This, I take it, is probably 
true of the other islands as well. 

Harbours and Inland Waters. — The inlets and arms 



302 QUEEN CHAKLOTTE ISLANDS. 

of the sea are countless. Spring- water of the very 
purest abounds in every part of the coast-land. As 
it mostly appears to flow from long distances inland, 
I am disposed to infer the existence of fresh-water 
lakes embosomed among the mountains of the in- 
terior, the labour and time required for a thorough 
exploration of the country having hitherto prevented 
either white men or black undertaking that duty. 

I did not see or hear of any river worth the men- 
tion. But, with such coast-access, rivers would be of 
no significance. 

The harbourage is simply magnificent. Stewart's 
Channel, which reminded me immensely of Spit- 
head, can accommodate an untold number of ships of 
the heaviest tonnage, and securely shelter them 
against storms from whatever quarter. The same, 
relatively as to size, may be said of Sockalee, Harriet, 
Laskeek, and Cum-she-was Harbours, on the eastern 
coast, and no doubt of many another on the western. 

Bocks. — To take Burnaby Island as an example, in 
the lower section of that islet considerable deposits 
of black slate mixed with limestone exist, the lime- 
stone being much disturbed by greenstone and 
granitic rockage, and its dense crystalline felspathic 
traps being grooved and furrowed by glacial action. 



ROCKS AND VEINS. 303 

This semi-crystalline limestone is studded with small 
bunches of black scorial slate, furnishing strong 
evidence of its plutonic age. A system of metalli- 
ferous quartzose veins having parallel trappean 
dykes, also permeates that island. These veins con- 
sist of ragged masses of plutonic, metamorphic, and 
trappean rock. I prospected likewise a number of 
spurs and veins of yellow and white quartz, the 
general run of which lies north and south. Some of 
these veins are a few inches in width, others as much 
as six feet, all highly oreiferous. 

Owing to the thick brushwood and the loose soil, 
composed of the debris of fallen timber and of 
vegetable matter lying undisturbed for centuries, I 
found it utterly impracticable to ascertain the extent 
or even the position of the rocks. 

Occasionally the trees stand separate; but the 
weary explorer does not advance twenty paces before 
he is sure to tumble upon prostrate giants flung one 
over the other in every conceivable configuration, 
from the lowest to the highest angles. Sometimes, 
after having fought his way for hours through de- 
spairing entanglements, he emerges into an open 
space seemingly solid. He steps boldly across it 
towards the next thicket, but, on a sudden, the thin 



304 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

slippery crust gives way, and down lie goes twenty or 
thirty feet amongst the rotten roots and the remains 
of eagles, crows, wild dogs, bears, and innumerable 
birds and beasts defunct ages ago. The bottom is 
usually dry; otherwise those frequent mishaps would 
often be fatal. As it is, such a combination of 
obstacles cannot fail to prevent the interior being ex- 
plored, except in a very gradual manner, or unless the 
exploration should be undertaken on a colossal scale. 
Land. — No one could pass a week among the islands 
without becoming convinced of their agricultural 
capacities. Vancouver Island has plenty of good arable 
land; but I saw nothing there, either in quality or 
in quantity, to equal what is to be seen on every side 
along the shores of Queen Charlotte Islands. The soil 
fit for farming purposes is not only extensive beyond 
all present calculation, but rich beyond description, 
and better still, wholly unappropriated. It seems to 
be ever crying out to the personifiers of civiliza- 
tion, " Come and farm me, and I will return you a 
hundredfold/' In short, once colonize those islands 
with the English farmer-class, and, considering the 
richness of the soil, the excellent harbourage, the 
easy means of transport, and the markets that are 
certain to arise on the British Columbian mainland, 



TREES, FRUITS, AND VEGETABLES. 305 

one might safely predict for them an agricultural 
prosperity absolutely unrivalled on the face of the 
globe. 

Trees, Fruits, and Vegetables. — The principal trees 
are the pine,* the spruce-pine, the alder, the crab, 
and the cedar, all in profusion and in first-class con- 
dition. I have made a calculation by which I am 
ready to prove that the cedars could be brought to 
the European market at a profit of eight per cent, 
which again might be increased to twenty per cent, 
if the other resources of the islands were included 
in the transit. 

Potatoes have already taken kindly to the soil. 
The natives cultivate them in really large quantities, 
and convey them across the Sound to the nearest 



i 



* The largest pine-tree known to exist on Vancouver Island is one near 
Mr. Richardson's house, Chemainis prairie, and not far from Chemainis 
river. It measures fifty-one feet in circumference, which gives sixteen in 
diameter. Its height is one hundred and fifty feet. Originally it was about 
fifty feet higher ; but the top has been broken off, either by lightning or 
by wind. Its name is " The Old Guardsman." And certainly it must have 
stood guard over the " forest primaeval " for whole centuries before any of 
its giant neighbours were born. 

It is common for people " on the trail" to turn aside to visit Mr. 
Richardson's famous pine. 

What, then, will be thought when I say, that the Queen Charlotte pine- 
trees are, as a rule, taller than " The Old Guardsman/' and not unfrequently 
quite double its height and circumference? I measured several which 
gave over three hundred feet high and sixty feet round. 



306 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

white settlements for sale. So far, the potato is the 
only vegetable on the islands. There are no cereals, 
wild or cultivated, and none of the tropical fruits, 
not even wild grapes. But anybody acquainted with 
the soil, taken with the climate, will recognise in it 
a fertile field for much of that kind of produce over 
and above the products of our own farming and 
kitchen-gardening. 

Crab- apples are plentiful, likewise strawberries, 
raspberries, cranberries, and the sweet-tasting berry 
which the Indians dry and preserve for winter 
use. Were all this raw material handled with 
skill, the country would soon be unsurpassed in 
ordinary fruit-gardening, to say nothing of the 
vines and wall-fruit of Europe that would be sure 
speedily to follow. 

Fish, Game, and Fur. — Salmon of several different 
species, cod, halibut, sturgeon, haddock, trout, 
whiting, herring, smelt, rock-bass, and seals of two 
species, swarm either in the seas of the coastway, 
or in the creeks and fresh river streams running up 
from it. 

As regards shell-fish, having myself eaten native 
oysters, I cannot question the fact of oyster-beds 
existing, although no actual beds have ever yet 



FISH AND GAME, 



307 



been seen there. The quantity and variety of the 
inferior sort of shell-fish are truly astonishing.* 

The larger fish, such as the whale and porpoise, 
would appear to make Queen Charlotte Sound 
their playground. They doubtless prefer the 
warmer water. I have seen scores of them at a time 
amusing themselves within rifle-range of our log- 
house on Burnaby Island. 

The game is snipe, duck, goose, ermine, marten, 



* Subjoined is a descriptive list of the varieties of shell-fish found on 


the beach and rocks in front of our log- 


•house : — 




Diadema granulosum . Secondary 


Cretaceous 


Lower Green Sand 


Pecten plebeius . . . Tertiary 


Old Phoc 


Red Crag 


Bulla edwardsii . . . Cain 


Eoc 


Brack 


Voluta luctatrix . ; . ditto 


ditto 


Woll. Beds 


Fusus regularis . . . ditto 


ditto 


Brack 


Axinus angulatus . . ditto 


ditto 


ditto 


Mvtilus antiquarium . . ditto 


Old Phoc 


Red Crag 


Voluta spinosa (6 varieties) ditto 


Eoe 


Woll. Beds 


Sanguinolaria hollowaysii ditto 


Eoc 


London 


Mactra arenata . . . Tertiary 


Pleist 


Norwich Crag 


Pileopsis vetnsta . . . Primary 


Ceub 


Ceub Strall 


Pleurotomaria reticulata Secondary 


Vol. 


Portland Sand 


Murex sex-dentatus . . Cain 


Upper Eoc 


Eluv. Marine 


Voluta iamberta . . . ditto 


Old Phoc 


Coil Crag 


Astarte elliptica . . . Tertiary 


Pleist 


Cavern Remains 


Nautica pachylabrum . Cain 


Eoc 


Lond. Clay 


Murex erinaceus . . . Tertiary 


Pleist 


F. and M. Deposits 


I have verified the above list by Reynolds's '. 


British Chart; but I 



gathered many more varieties, which are not accounted for in Reynolds's 
work, or, to my knowledge, in any scientific book. Unluckily they were 
destroyed, together with all my valuable fossil and mineral specimens, in 
the great Canadian bush-fire of 1865. 

x 2 



308 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

common otter, sea-otter, and bears, besides numerous 
other birds* and animals. The stock of game seems 
a marvel in itself, until one remembers that there 
has never yet been any serious onslaught upon it. 
Colonization will, of course, cause a decrease; still 
for twenty years hence no colonist of the islands 
need starve, if he possesses a gun and can hit a hay- 
stack. 

Fur will no doubt also die out, as a traffic; 
but, again, years must elapse before all the bears, 



* The following is a list of the birds frequenting the neighbourhood of 
Burnaby Island : — 

Night-hawk— -falco nocturnus. 

Sparrow-hawk— -falco sparverius. 

Gos-hawk — astur atricapillus. 

White-headed eagle — haliaetus leucocephalus. 

Belted kingfisher — alcedo accinctus. 

Western blue-bird — cyanceus occidentalis. 

North Western fish-crow — corvus caurinus. 

Wilson's snipe — gallinago wilsonii. 

Canadian goose — bernacla canadensis. 

White-cheeked goose — bernacla leucoparsia. 

Mallard (stock duck) — anas boschas. 

Canvas-back duck — aythia vallisneria. 

Golden- eye (whistle- wing duck) — bucepkala americana. 

Buffle-head duck — bucephala albeola. 

Harlequin duck — histrionicus torquatus. 

Velvet duck — malanetta velvetina. 

Glaucous-winged duck — larus glaucescens. 

Suckley's gull — larus suckleyii. 

Great Northern diver — colymbus torquatus. 

Hed-necked grepe — -podicetus grisergeria.. 



NATIVE TRIBES. 309 

seals, ermine, and marten are cleared out. The 
present breeds, in my opinion, would supply fur 
enough to make the fortunes of half-a-dozen fur 
companies. 

Native Tribes.-— Here are the tribal names of the 
principal tribes inhabiting the islands :— Klue, Skid- 
dan, Ninstenee or Cape St. James, Skid-a-gate, Skid- 
a-ga-tees, Gold-Harbour, Cum-she-was, and four 
others, whose appellations I never could distinguish. 
Hydah is the generic name for the whole. 

All these tribes together amount to a native popu- 
lation of about five thousand, rather less perhaps. 

The Queen Charlotte Islanders are justly con- 
sidered the finest sample of the Indian race in the 
North Pacific. They will stand comparison with 
any Indians in the world. Their faults are the 
usual Indian ones; but I did not find them to be 
naturally revengeful or bloodthirsty, except when 
smarting under the sense of a real and grave injury, 
or when seeking to avert an imaginary wrong. 

If honestly and firmly treated, no natives could be 
better disposed towards the white men. Chief Klue, 
considering himself as a sort of suzerain to the other 
chiefs, and believing that he had a right to do what 
he liked with his own islands, made me a present, in 



310 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

the simplicity of his heart, of the whole of Queen 
Charlotte Islands, on condition that I lived amongst 
my Indian friends, and induced all my English friends 
to come and settle there too. No small gift, con- 
sidering that the islands are nearly two hundred miles 
long, by an average of thirty wide. 

The men are generally tall, and they would be 
handsome, or at least comely, if it were not for their 
atrocious custom of bedaubing themselves all over. 
Their real reason for using paint is that they fancy 
it improves personal beauty ; and those poor savages 
of the islands are certainly not singular in hoping 
to be made " beautiful for ever " by means of paint. 
But they give as their excuse the necessity of having 
some protection against the weather. Until they 
consent to wear clothing, it must be owned, too, that 
there is something in the excuse. The majority of 
them, whether male or female, wear only a small- 
sized blanket, thrown loosely across the shoulders, 
like a Spanish hidalgo's cloak, and more with, a view 
to warmth than from any sense of decency. 

Some of the women have exceedingly handsome 
faces and very symmetrical figures. Their charms, 
however, are all but neutralized by the usage common 
amongst them of disfiguring their breasts, arms, ears, 



THE WOMAN-KIND. 311 

and under-lip. One particularly fine woman, a 
daughter of the petty chief Skilly-gutts, had half 
her body tattooed with representations of chiefs, fish, 
birds, and beasts. She told me that a halibut, laid 
open with the face of the chief of her tribe drawn on 
the tail, would protect her and her kin from drown- 
ing at sea. Most of the native females wear rings 
through their noses. The elder ones may frequently 
be seen with nose-rings large enough to serve as 
collars for cats in good condition. Every woman 
has three or four holes to each ear, one of the holes 
being generally of sufficient size to admit the little 
finger up to the second joint. The rings are bone, 
and their own manufacture ; but sometimes, rather 
than not decorate their ears, they will insert pieces 
of stick or strips of cloth into the ear-holes. Brace- 
lets of the same material are not uncommon, like- 
wise anklets, which, however, having usually been 
put on in youth and retained as fixtures, often cause 
lameness. My constant topic of conversation with 
the native women was the custom of our country in 
regard to females. The most frequent questions 
used to refer to Tyhee Klootchman and her Papoose^ 
that is, Queen Victoria and her children ; for example, 
how they dressed, how much money they had, what 



312 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

price each of the children fetched in blankets, and 
their names. The names formed a never-failing 
source of amusement. I had to give each woman and 
papoose a name after some member of the Royal 
Family, past or present. When I had finished they 
would go away delighted; but the next morning 
they would be pretty sure to call upon me again, to 
beg to have their names told them once more, a 
function I was wholly unable to discharge, having 
meanwhile forgotten all about them. 

Amongst these simple and primitive tribes the 
institution of marriage is altogether unknown. On 
the other hand, so is polygamy. They view a woman 
purely as a thing of purchase, to be had connubially 
for a month's trial, and then, if not satisfactory, to be 
returned to her parents, who are thereupon bound 
to give back whatever she fetched in blankets, trinkets, 
or the rest. The beautiful bond of attachment ending 
only in death, and the heroic constancy of affection 
often not ending then, which characterizes the lawful 
intercourse of the sexes in civilized countries has yet 
to be introduced into Queen Charlotte Islands. The 
females in fact cohabit almost promiscuously with 
their own tribe, though rarely with other tribes. Not 
only does no dishonour attach to that degrading 



DISTRIBUTING BOOTY. 313 

practice, but, if successful in making money, it is 
highly honoured. I remember one singular case of 
this. Some Queen Charlotte women went to spend 
the Winter at Victoria, hoping to " earn blankets." 
They came back loaded with blankets, trinkets, 
tobacco, whisky, and other presents, which they pro- 
ceeded to distribute among their people in the fol- 
lowing manner. Perching themselves on a rocky 
platform near the beach, they tore the blankets into 
long strips of about eight inches wide, and threw 
them as far as possible into the midst of the crowd, 
who scrambled for them. When the crowd got tired 
and the fun flagged, the leader of the women pro- 
duced a bundle of old revolvers and pitched them 
one after another into the shallow part of the sea, 
the men rushing in up to their arm-pits, mad with 
desire to possess a white man's " six-shooter." It cer- 
tainly was very diverting, if one had not chanced to 
recollect whence and why the booty had come here. 
The really strange part of it all had to come, how- 
ever; for, on my inquiring what the women meant by 
giving away their earnings in that way, I was told 
that they would all be rewarded. And so they were, 
Klue raising the " husband'' of the principal woman 
to the rank of chief, and the tribe building her a 



314 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

house. Apart from the detestable traffic which 
enabled that woman to gain such a position in her 
tribe, I could not help seeing in the public wish to 
recognise her supposed merit a good forecast of what 
true civilization may one day do for those poor un- 
taught islanders. She rose in the estimation of her 
tillicums (friends), because, having earned money — 
they cared not how — she had shown a good turn turn 
(heart), in assisting the needy. Not a bad criterion, 
surely ; or, at least, a policy which not seldom is 
approved and acted upon amongst our home nations. 
It is a common error, common throughout the 
American continent even, to imagine that the abo- 
rigines of Canada and British Columbia are black. 
We are called whites to make a distinction; but in 
reality, the natural skin which prevails in most of the 
tribes is nearly as white as ours. The " dusky " 
Indians of the Canadian prairies stain their skins 
with the bark of trees, and the M blacks," in our 
colonies along the North Pacific seaboard, paint 
themselves with wetted char-wood. Whenever 
this custom was temporarily relinquished, I was 
always impressed by the manly beauty and bodily 
proportions of my islanders. The Ninstence tribe, 
generally known as the Cape St. James Indians, 



DRIED FISH. 315 

appeared to me the handsomest, the Skid-a-gates the 
most intelligent, and Klue's personal tribe the most 
daring and trustworthy. Another error concerns 
the colour of the hair. No doubt it usually is dark ; 
but the shade differs greatly. I saw a whole family 
or section of a tribe, on the British Columbian main- 
land, every one of whom had not only a clean white 
skin but light silky hair. On Queen Charlotte 
Islands there were numberless instances of auburn 
tresses, and a few positively of golden curls, amongst 
which Klue's little Klootchman daughter was con- 
spicuous. 

The chief food of the Queen Charlotte islanders is 
halibut. This fish amply suffices to support them 
during the fishing season, the flesh of it being sub- 
stantial, satisfying, and well-flavoured. At the close 
of the fishing season they dry the fish. Before eating 
dried fish they break it into bits, and soak the bits in 
fish-oil, or rather in fish-grease having the consistency 
of uncooled jelly, and then devour them, just as boys 
amongst ourselves are wont to revel in bread and 
treacle.* Fish thus soaked is their Winter-food, 



* This mode of eating dried fish curiously tallies with the manners of 
the Queen Charlotte Islanders in the last century, as described by Captain 
Cook, R.N., in his Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. (Vol. ii. p. 424). 



316 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

their only additional relish being the preserved berry 
already alluded to. Quantities of berries are laid in 
stock; but, the eaters have such prodigious appetites 
that frequently whole tribes will be reduced to star- 
vation before the Winter ends. Were it not for a 
few bulbs which they dig out of the soil in the early 
Spring-time, while awaiting the halibut-season, 
numbers of Indians really would starve to death. 
They use nets, baits, and a kind of club or flat 
mallet to fish with. Bears and other animals are 
caught by means of an ingenious method of trapping ; 
for, odd as it may seem, the Queen Charlotte Islanders 
know nothing of spears, and, odder still, nothing of 
bows and arrows. Hence, until they got muskets 
from the white men, the game on the islands had a 
pleasant time of it. Even now the Indians are only 
able to shoot an occasional seal, or at most a duck 
or a goose. 

Bark forms their grand medicinal specific. They 
have another curative remedy, however, which is 
apparently original and novel. For a long while I 
was at a loss to account for the large pools of water 
which, on returning after dinner, we often used to 
find lying round the shaft-head. I remember feeling 
somewhat anxious, as it occurred to me that possibly 



A WASH INSIDE-OUT. 317 

there might have been an overflow from the shaft 
itself, although I did not understand how such could 
have happened. But, then, the water never appeared 
in the night-time, and in the day-time only when the 
workmen were away. Concluding, therefore, that the 
Indians had to do with it, I watched behind a rock 
one day during dinner-time. Presently I saw a 
chief and two of his women come along. Taking a 
bucket apiece from the shaft- works, they went down 
to the sea, and having filled the buckets with sea- 
water they came quietly back to the works. What 
in the name of goodness were the perfidious wretches 
going to do ? Perhaps inundate the shaft, and try 
to spoil our mining operations ? Not so. Squatting 
down on their haunches, each Indian seized a bucket, 
and at one gulp swallowed every drop of its contents. 
This extraordinary performance puzzled me more 
than ever, particularly as the drinkers remained im- 
movable in their squat position. I could perceive 
nothing to explain the pools of water. However, 
after I had waited patiently for fully twenty minutes, 
I was about to retire, when suddenly all three, rising 
a little, opened their mammoth jaws, and out rushed 
half a pail of water from each mouth. They then 
began twisting and rolling their bodies hither and 



318 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

thither, as one might shake up a bottle of physic, and 
immediately the rest of the water was ejected. The 
matter-of-fact ease with which they conducted the 
entire process made up not the least curious part of 
it. But the problem of the pools was solved. Going 
up to the Indians, therefore, and unable to smother 
my laughter, I asked them what they intended by the 
proceedings I had just witnessed. " They were 
washing themselves inside-out " was the answer, 
delivered in a very serious tone of voice, as much as to 
insinuate that they considered their water-cure to be 
no joke at all, in which sentiment I certainly, on 
reflection, coincided ; for to the indiscriminate 
adoption of this cure, it seems to me, is clearly 
traceable the fearful mortality among the natives 
when the small-pox visited them. 

I never yet met with an Indian who was not a 
born gambler. On the British Columbian mainland, 
and on Vancouver Island, professionals travel about 
from tribe to tribe, trusting entirely to gambling for 
a livelihood. But the Queen Charlotte Islanders 
surpass any people that I ever saw in passionate 
addiction to the all-absorbing vice. I shall give one 
salient instance. I once stood by while a Queen 
Charlotte chief gambled away every article he 



INDIAN GAMBLING. 319 

possessed in the world. He continued playing for 
three days, without eating a mouthful of food, but 
perpetually losing. By the fourth day he had 
parted with the very blanket on his back. A woman 
of his tribe, however, having compassionately lent 
him her only blanket, he renewed the contest, and 
recovered not merely what he had previously lost, 
but all his opponent's property, which happened to 
be rather considerable in powder and shot, muskets, 
revolvers, blankets, skins, paints, tobacco, and fish. 
The game was Odd or Even,* which is played thus. 
The players spread a mat, made of the inner bark 
of the yellow cypress, upon the ground, each party 
being provided with from forty to fifty round pins 
or pieces of wood, five inches long by one-eighth of 
an inch thick, painted in black and blue rings, and 
beautifully polished. One of the players, selecting a 
number of these pins, covers them up in a heap of 



* Mr. J. A. St. John, describing the sports and pastimes of the ancient 
Greeks, has the following : — " To play at Odd or Even was common ; so 
that we find Plato describing a knot of boys engaged in this game. There 
was a kind of divination, the bones being hidden under the hand, and the 
one party guessing whether they were odd or even. The same game was 
occasionally played with beans, walnuts, or almonds, if we may credit 
Aristophanes, who describes certain serving-men playing at Odd or Even 
with golden staters." (Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece, Vol. I. 
p. 162.) The Roman game of Morra, still played in Italy by the peasants, 
is of a similar nature, although the hands only are used in it. 



320 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

bark cut into fine fibre-like tow. Under cover of 
the bark he then divides the pins into two parcels, 
and, having taken them out, passes them several 
times from his right hand to his left, or the contrary. 
While the player shuffles, he repeats the words 
I-E-Ly-Yah, to a low monotonous chant or moan. 
The moment he finishes the incantation, his op- 
ponent, who has been silently watching him, chooses 
the parcel where he thinks the luck lies for Odd or 
Even, After which the second player takes his 
innings, with his own pins and the same ceremonies. 
This goes on till one or other loses all his pins. 
That decides the game. 

The Queen Charlotte Islanders have a vague 
notion of a Great Spirit. They also share the belief, 
prevalent among all North American Indians, that, 
when they die, their spirits will pass to " the happy 
hunting-grounds/' the chase being the type of happi- 
ness to the Indian mind. But I failed to trace the 
slightest connexion between these two semi-religious 
ideas and the current of their lives. They did not 
appear to look upon themselves as in the slightest 
degree responsible to a Supreme Being for their 
actions. In consequence they offered Him no 
worship. I observed that even their conception of 



INDIAN FEASTS. 321 

duty towards their fellow-men was extremely limited, 
being in fact regulated solely by the supposed good 
that would accrue from any particular act to any 
individual person or tribe in whom or which they 
were interested. Unless when they followed the 
impulses of their hearts, gain seemed their sole 
motive, no inconvenient principles ever standing in 
the way. On the other hand, though prone to 
superstition, like all savage nations, they are far less 
grossly superstitious than other Indians in the North 
Pacific. Thus such horrible orgies as those enacted 
by the medicine-men among the Tsimshean Indians 
near Fort Simpson, one never sees or hears of among 
the Queen Charlotte Islanders. 

They keep many feasts or festivals during the 
course of the year. These do not bear the least on 
religion, but are purely social gatherings. In pre- 
paration for a feast the Indians first wash the old 
black paint clean off their bodies. Then, after having 
besmeared their skins with fish-grease to cause the 
colours to stick well, they repaint their faces, chests, 
and arms red, with figures of men, birds, or fish. 
The black paint is their own preparation ; the red is 
vermilion, which they purchase from the whites. 
When this repainting has been accomplished, it may 

T 



322 QUEEN CHAKLOTTE ISLANDS. 

be styled their full-dress. And yet they are not deemed 
presentable at the feast till they have furthermore 
besprinkled their painted bodies all over with the 
fine down of the duck or goose. Talk of tarring and 
feathering being mythical. It is pure and simple 
reality to them. As soon as the time comes for the 
feast to commence, the men squat down in large ex- 
tended circles, and beat a sort of accompaniment by 
means of double sticks to the dancing of the women. 
That can scarcely be called a dance, either, which is 
but a contortion of the head and body into every 
imaginable shape and position, while the knee-joints, 
and often the entire legs, remain unmoved. Now 
and again a woman will throw in a new movement 
or figure, spicing it with a witty or slangy word, 
such as will highly amuse the outer crowd, and en- 
courage them to redouble the excitement. 

Here are two of their favourite songs. The first 
runs : — 



g= | ^i=FB=^E T 1 Ti'-r =R ! =r=F 



tr 



I 

I, e, iia. I, e, ly-yah. Ha, oii, ha, la, I, e, ha. 

Da Capo four times, finishing with Chorus. 
Chorus. 

-#$ =— = = 



I, e, ha. 1, e, ha. 



INDIAN MUSIC. 323 

The second is nothing but a repetition of the note 
B in the key of E\ and the words, like our ri-fol-de- 
liddle-lol-ri'fol-lairy, having no intrinsic signification, 
have no translation. They sing this song princi- 
pally when out canoeing. The notes to the two 
upper lines are semibreves, those to the under-line 
crotchets, thus: — 

Equal — ah, ah, ah, ah, he, he, he. andante. 
Equal — ah, ah, ah, ah, he, he, he. crescendo. 
Equal— ah, equal — ah, he, he, he. decrescendo. 

These specimens of native music were certainly 
composed before modern notation was introduced, 
and probably before the art of music was invented. 
I have tried to approximate the above rendering to 
our ideas. But the proper term for this kind of 
music would be Plain Chant Run Mad, if it were not 
for a peculiar plaintiveness of tone and a quaint 
hitch of the voice at the end of each line, which 
redeems the so-called singing from the charge of 
inflicting torture on human ears. 



As I conclude this narrative of my discoveries and 
adventures along the North Pacific coast, my 
thought naturally reverts to the geographical position 
of the islands where, for the chief part of two years, 
I lived and worked. 

y 2 



824 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

Everybody who has personal cognizance of Canada 
and British Columbia feels assured of the day being 
near when the western boundary of the Canadian 
Dominion must comprise, not only the Red River and 
the Saskatchawn territories, but our outlying pos- 
sessions in the North Pacific. The importance of so 
vast an agglomeration will explain itself to those who 
are strangers to America, by the reflection that the 
British Columbian colony alone contains 280,000 
square miles, making no less than 179,200,000 acres. 
Let the political arrangements be once complete, and 
a Grand Northern Pacific Railway, opening up to 
colonization and culture immense tracts now waste 
and unknown, will inevitably follow. Great, how- 
ever, as the acquisition appears at first glance, its 
primary value by no means comprehends all the 
advantages that are sure to accrue thence to the 
British Empire. For unbroken steam and rail com- 
munication, under our own control, with the North 
Pacific Ocean will also give both England and 
Canada a new outlet for the exports to the western 
seaboards of the two Americas, and, further on, to 
Japan, China, and Australasia. 

But those isles of the Far West which I have been 
describing lie directly in the high-road of the 
anticipated commerce. 



A SUMMARY. 325 

If, therefore, their beneficent climate, and the mag- 
nitude of their mineral and agricultural resources, be 
judiciously appraised beforehand, their prosperity is 
already secured. 

I close with the earnest hope that such a colonizing 
scheme will ere long be devised as may, at one and 
the same time, utilize so favoured a country to us, 
and rescue from savagedom the poor benighted tribes 
who inhabit it. 

Then I shall think that I have not laboured in 
vain on behalf of Queen Charlotte Islands. 



326 



CHAPTER XX. 

VIEW OE VICTORIA — HOMEWARD-BOUND — SAN FRANCISCO — COPPEROPOLIS — 
STOCKTON — THE " KING OF TREES" — MANZANILLA — ARISTOCRATIC 
THIEVES — MEXICAN LIEE — ACAPULCO — BLACK SWIMMING-BOYS — TEM- 
PERATURE — SUNSETS — TAIL OP A HURRICANE — PANAMA CITY — BACK 
ACROSS THE ISTHMUS — EROM COLON TO NEW YORK — CANADIAN HEAD- 
QUARTERS — ON THE WAY TO ENGLAND. 

The Queen Charlotte Mining Company having 
approved my Report, provided for the removal of 
my late workmen, and handsomely acknowledged my 
services, 1 was free to return to England, or to resume 
the more regular professional work in Canada, from 
which I had temporarily severed myself. 

Before briefly narrating my return-voyage, I shall 
say a word on the capital of British Columbia. 

Outside Victoria, towards the north, is an excellent 
racecourse, with some high land in the centre of it 
called Beacon-hill. I took my stand there, to have a 
farewell look at the colony. In the North Pacific 
strangers are said to incline to the use of superlatives 
while surveying the scenery. Perhaps so; yet, "most 
magnificent, most glorious," are the expressions that 



VIEW OF VICTORIA. 327 

do rise to one's mind in presence of the perfect 
natural beauty to be viewed on all sides. 

The prospect for miles and miles round the capital 
could not but enlist enthusiastic admiration. What 
I saw included an interminable extent of bold sea- 
coast, cut up into lovely coves and future bathing- 
places, that forcibly recalled our Devon and Corn- 
wall at home. Beyond these came, here the ocean in 
all its expanded beauty, there the straits and the 
inland seas I had learnt to know so well, and, 
beyond the straits again, the long mountain-chains of 
the Oregon Territory rearing their snow-clad crests 
in stern splendour. I sat for hours, hardly taking 
my eyes from off the landscape, rendered doubly 
beautiful by the clear atmosphere which allowed me to 
discern objects without a glass at wondrous distances. 

It is grand that Englishmen should have such 
a land to colonize. Other nations, one felt, would 
spoil it. 

Looking down, you see Victoria at your feet. It 
is laid out on rising ground, and promises from its 
plan to become a fine city. The streets are designedly 
wide; but it will be years yet before high houses can 
be built in sufficient numbers to make the width and 
height of the streets more proportionate. Every 
thoroughfare in the town stands at right angles with 



328 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

its neighbours, after the usual colonial fashion. If 
one adds that the whole place has a genuine colonial 
air about it, no dispraise is intended. Some day its 
streets will rival those of Melbourne. 

I remember particularly, being in an observant 
and reflective mood on descending from my eminence, 
that I was struck by the neatness and comfort which 
seemed to predominate through the town ; and that 
is more than can be said for Yankee beginnings in 
any given locality. 

The immediate vicinity of Victoria looks bare. 
Amongst the few attractive spots near is Government 
House. The grounds which surround it are con- 
siderable and prettily laid out. Of the residence 
itself, I can only venture to say that it insensibly 
called to mind the house of an English farmer in 
easy circumstances. 

After a pleasing interview with Governor Douglas, 
and an affectionate leave-taking with Chief Klue and 
his men, I at last made ready to quit British 
Columba.* 

* By the official returns of the British Columbian Government in 1870, 
the white population in the colony was estimated at 10,496, inclusive of 
1947 Chinese. But, of course, many roaming traders, miners, and fisher- 
men are overlooked. The Indian population is variously estimated at from 
30,000 to 50,000. 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 329 

From this point my Diary will serve rne to the 
end of the journey homeward : — 

" May loth. — Wishing many sincere friends good- 
bye, I mounted this morning into the stage, bag and 
baggage, and came quickly across from Victoria to 
Esquimalt Harbour. I am now on board the Sierra 
Nevada steamship, bound for San Francisco." 

" 18th, 8 a.m. — Just entering the " Golden Gate," 
within sight of Frisco, after a roughish but pleasant 
passage from Esquimalt. 

" 2 p.m. — Have put up at the Tehama House 
Hotel, and taken a berth in a small steamer to go 
and see the great copper-mines near Stockton." 

" 19th. — Reached Stockton, by Cornelia steamer, at 
3 a.m. to-day. Came along in the stage to Coppero- 
polis, distant thirty-nine miles, where I arrived at 
3 p.m., having passed through enormous flats of 
the richest prairie land. About one hundred houses 
in Copperopolis (what a name to give a place, to be 
sure), nearly all hotels and stables. Went off at 
once to visit the works. Saw the famous Union 
mine, which, they say, has a vein sixteen feet thick, 
extending in one straight line for twenty miles. 
This mine is worked by three engines, one of six- 
horse power, and two others of fourteen-horse power 



330 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

each. I inspected also the Keystone mine, on the 
opposite side of the town. Smaller, but better ore. 
Obtained specimens* from both mines. " 

" 20th, 2 p.m. — Arrived back at Stockton a while 
ago. Before leaving Copperopolis I hired a swift 
Mexican mustang (small mule), and rode out to see 
the u King of Trees," a few miles from the town, re- 
turning by another route over a spur of the Sierra 
Nevada mountains. Only a huge stump now remains 
of this once great tree. The top partf was cut off 
and conveyed to our Crystal Palace at Sydenham, 
some years back. There is a whole grove of gigan- 
tic trees, the one sent to England having been the 
largest. At first sight, these trees do not appear so 
very much larger-sized than those of the surrounding 
forest. It is only by measurement that one comes to 
apprehend their immensity. The largest tree now 
in the grove measures thirty-three feet in diameter, 
the same diameter, namely, as that of the Thames 
Tunnel. Another, called the " Grizzly Giant," fell 
down last year. As it lay on the ground, I took the 
diameter. It was exactly thirty-three feet. I also 

* On my return to England I placed these particular specimens in the 
collection at Somerset House, London. 

f This is the Californian trunk, which was afterwards burnt in the 
Crystal Palace fire in 1867. 



the queen's birthday. 331 

measured the distance from the root to the first limb, 
and found it to be ninety feet, the diameter at the 
limb itself being over six feet." 

"2lst. — Got to my hotel at California at 2 a.m., 
after a disgusting passage of nine hours from Stock- 
ton. Steamer Henry Hemsley wretched, and full of 
drunken Yankee rowdies. Kan aground coming up, 
and had much difficulty in getting the vessel off, in 
consequence of the disorderly mob on board, repub- 
lican institutions requiring that everybody, however 
ignorant, should have a voice in the matter. A 
never-too-highly-prized blessing is it, being born 
under the flag of Old England." 

" 2 3rd., 8 a.m. — It warms one's heart to look out 
of the hotel window this morning. For what do I 
see, amidst all the rowdyism around me, but about 
forty English ships in the harbour, gaily decorated 
from stem to stern with flags and streamers? They 
are keeping the Queen's birthday. This cheery sight 
reminds me that in two hours I shall have em- 
barked in the Golden Age steamer, on my way back 
to civilized life." 

u 2Sth. — We have now been five days at sea, having 
steamed some 1280 miles, or about 256 miles every 
twenty-four hours. The ship is nothing but an old 



332 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

punt, hastily refitted for this service.* She rolls like 
a wash-tub. The passengers, who hardly number 
two hundred, do not seem martyrs to sea-sickness, 
being for the most part old stagers on the briny deep. 
I am the only Englishman amongst them. They are 
principally Mexicans and South Americans, with a 
dozen successful miners from Cariboo and California." 

" 29th, 6 a.m. — Crossed the Gulf of California 
during the night, and, for the first time since leaving 
San Francisco, can see the land on our lee. 

"7 a.m. — Off Corrientes, in the Republic of Halisco. 
Not three miles from the coast : but we are unable 
to make it out, in consequence of a cloud-like mist, 
drawn from the earth by the heat of the sun. The 
Captain tells me, that this mist will become more 
intense every day, according as we approach nearer 
to the Line. 

"11 a.m. — Mist cleared. We can plainly discern 
the wreck of a large steamship in-shore. It was 
destroyed by fire when passing this way a few weeks 
ago. Ship's name, the Golden Gate. Cause of the 
accident, customary Yankee negligence. Many lives 
were lost, among which an old friend of my own. 



* The same ship that had taken me, in 1862, to San Francisco. The 
vessel was very fair to look at, but completely worn out. 



A VISIT ON BOARD. 333 

The wreck lies high and dry on the beach, exposed 
to the wild surf so common along the Mexican coast. 

u 2'30p.m. — Dropped anchor at noon, in Manza- 
nilla Harbour. 

" Weather not so hot and sultry as when I came in 
here before. There seems much more liveliness 
about the place. The site for a city is well chosen, 
and the harbour capacities of Manzanilla are indubi- 
tably great. We have taken a large freight of silver 
on board, in coin and bars; also cotton in bales. 

" Quite a crowd of Mexican ladies have come off in 
boats to inspect our ship : and they do look despe- 
rately handsome, with their lustrous eyes under the 
longest eyelashes in creation, and such tiny hands 
and feet. The length of the hand is the length of 
the foot; so, instead of getting measured for shoes, 
they merely hold out their hands. The female dress 
in Mexico is generally black, but I remark that some 
of these ladies have crimson or amber colours inter- 
mixed with it. They appear as though dressed for 
an evening party. None have head-dresses; but 
each one carries a coquettish little silk parasol, by 
way of protecting her head from the sun. 

"4 p.m. — Steam up, and we are off again, with a 
fair wind. 



334 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

"Goodness gracious! who would have thought 
that those lovely and apparently aristocratic ladies, 
whom I was admiring two hours ago, were sent down 
from the interior of Colima by their 'noble ' husbands 
to steal — yes, actually to steal? It is true, I hear, 
that Mexicans as a rule consider it absolute folly 
to pay for anything, if they can possibly obtain it 
without. Numbers of articles are being missed by 
the passengers, and doubtless more will be. Three 
of the c ladies ' were seen handling some teaspoons in 
a very suspicious manner, whilst others engaged the 
attention of their admirers. One 'lady,' the most 
noble-looking of the party, was caught in the act. 
She had adroitly snatched up a shirt, and concealed 
it in the folds of her mantilla. But a vigilant Cana- 
dian, having observed the theft, informed the shirt's 
owner, who politely asked her ladyship whether she 
could not make it convenient to pay for the shirt 
to-day, as he did not contemplate returning by this 
steamer. With the utmost composure she imme- 
diately put her little hand into her pocket, and paid 
the price. 

" We have some male Mexicans in the saloon, who 
endeavour to laugh all this off — vainly, however. 
They have let us into some entertaining facts as 



MEXICAN LADIES. 335 

regards their fair countrywomen. No Mexican ladies 
are ever allowed to walk out alone. A duenna must 
always accompany them, even if it be to church; yet 
their morals stand very low. They are wonderfully 
captivating, on account of their light witty talk, their 
sweeping bright eyes, and their graceful persons. 
Heading is an institution almost unknown amongst 
them. They dally away most of their existence in 
listless idleness, varied occasionally by a ball, and of 
an evening by a walk in the Ritretta or an airing on 
the Pasco. They rise early, because matutinal at- 
tendance at church is an established custom. But 
after that the hours of the day are passed in lounging 
upon beautifully-worked hammocks, suspended under 
the verandahs, where they smoke their cigarettes, 
whilst little nigger-boys fan them off to sleep, or 
handmaidens come and coif their plenteous black 
hair. Alas, they know not the comforts of water: 
for, although a bath is now and then taken, they do 
not wash regularly, but in the morning merely 
moisten their faces with the corner of a towel dipped 
in rum. Can they be said to live?" 

" 30^A, 3 p.m. — Alarm of fire. Immense excite- 
ment amongst the passengers — small blame to them. 
But the stupe of a captain only wants to exercise 



336 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

the hands at the fire-engine. A nice sort of com- 
mander to be under, supposing a real crisis to occur. 

"4 p.m. — Just spoke the Constitution steamer on 
her way to Frisco. She looked crowded with 
passengers, the majority, I hear, being an expected 
ship-load from New York, off in quest of gold to the 
Fraser river. Some will come back rich. But how 
many will die of starvation instead ? 

" 7 p.m. — In the harbour of Acapulco, Republic of 
Guerrero, our vessel having fired a gun as she 
entered. 

" This being the rainy season, we are fortunate in a 
deliciously fine evening, with a moonlight that makes 
one half think it is daytime. 

" On my outward-bound voyage, as the English 
and French fleets were then blockading Acapulco, we 
could only ride at anchor a short while in the offing. 
I now got such a view of the town and harbour as 
the brightest imaginable moon could afford. 

" The town is built on the shore of a landlocked 
basin. To the left, above a rocky point, was plainly 
visible a fort with ditches and strong embrasures, and 
the trees of the Alameda or Government House 
behind it. 

" I believe the Mexicans made no stand whatever 



ACAPULCO HARBOUR. 337 

in this fort during the late siege. It would have 
been impossible, indeed; for their shot could not 
carry above half-way to the French ships which were 
bombarding the fort ; whereas the French easily sent 
both shot and shell into it, although firing from the 
mouth of the bay. The Mexican commander wisely 
spiked his guns, therefore, and withdrew his men to a 
mountain-fort higher up, where he knew the enemy's 
shot must be powerless to reach them. 

" 10 p.m. — Steaming out of harbour again. 
" For the last hour or so we have been having fun 
enough in the harbour itself. I had often heard it 
stated that a shark will never attack a black man. I 
long reserved my judgment on this head, until I 
could see a thoroughly satisfying proof of the state- 
ment; and I have seen one here with a vengeance. 
Soon after we had entered the harbour, I pointed out 
to a fellow-traveller a number of dark-looking units 
moving about on the water's surface between our 
ship and the out-shores of the bay. We took them 
for some kind of sea-fowl; but an officer of the ship 
told us that these were a set of professional swimmers, 
who, though not exactly negroes, belong to the lowest 
Mexican caste, their external casings and general 
characteristics smacking strongly of negroism. 



338 QUEEN CHAELOTTE ISLANDS. 

Having learnt that the Golden Age was expected, 
they had taken the water at early dawn, and never 
put foot to ground all day. Soon they came in a 
shoal alongside the ship's paddle-box, wishing the 
passengers buenas noches, with a queer wave of the 
hand. And there, for more than two hours, they 
treated us to all kinds of antics and aquatics. We 
pitched them lots of five, ten, twenty-five, and fifty- 
cent pieces. It was wonderful, certainly, to see the 
fellows fight each other in the water, and then dive 
down ever so deep after the money, wholly regardless 
of hundreds of sharks darting about like tadpoles in 
all directions, but not once touching these black 
boys. 

" I note a rise in the temperature. The ocean is 
tranquil, only a slight breeze rippling its waters. 
We have consequently no demon of sea-sickness to 
disturb our companionship. But the demon of heat 
takes his place. I do not feel it quite so much as I 
did when in these waters two years ago, probably 
because of the present season being rainy. Still the 
thermometer ranges from 75° to 84° at night, and 
from 86° to 90° by day. This I know is a lower 
temperature than we sometimes experience in the 
North: but here one has a muggy, debilitating 



THE SUNSETS. 339 

atmosphere to contend with as well. Under its in- 
fluence my energies flag, my active habits of mind 
and body are thrown aside, my very sensibilities 
seem weakened. Lying in my berth a while ago, I 
did long for the health -giving embraces of the 
northern winds. A borean blast is rude, but it 
tingles in your veins, and stiffens all your nerves, 
until it compels you to be up and doing." 

"31s£, 8 p.m. — Had a striking sunset this evening. 

" The sunsets hereabouts are very peculiar. I 
have seen nothing like them, except in the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence. The sky, upon its ground-hue of rose 
westward, and of purple eastward, is mottled and 
freckled over with delicate clouds, the colours of 
which run through every shade of crimson^ amber, 
violet, and russet-gold. No dead duskiness appears 
opposite the sinking sun. The entire expanse of the 
firmament glows with an equal radiance, redupli- 
cating its glories on the glassy sea, so that we seem to 
be floating in a hollow spheroid of prismatic crystal. 
As the light diminishes, these radiant vapours gather 
together into flaming pyramids, between each pin- 
nacle of which a depth of serene air reveals the same 
fathomless violet-green that one remembers in the 
skies of Titian. 

z 2 



340 QUEEN CHAKLOTTE ISLANDS. 

" I had hardly noted down the above, when, going 
on deck, I found the ship's company and passengers 
gazing transfixed upon a dark black line which 
stretched across the whole length of the northern 
horizon. The sea had meantime changed its colour 
from indigo blue to a sheet of white phosphorescent 
light. While we gaze, nearer and nearer approaches 
the dark line. Not a soul speaks. We hold our breath, 
and almost cower ; for instinct tells us one and all that 
it is a hurricane squall, so dreaded on this coast. 
Suddenly the passengers rush below, and the crew 
obey the order to " batten down the hatches." Prefer- 
ring the deck, in the twinkling of an eye I had lashed 
myself to the capstan. The squall came along with 
giant steps. One fearful moment, it struck our 
veteran ship, shaking her as a cat would a mouse, 
and then all was instantly calm, as though nothing 
had happened. Again the silver moon illuminates 
the horizon and the intervening space of sea. The 
passengers crowd up the hatches, and the oldest 
sailors declare that it was the tail of a true hurri- 
cane, and the c closest shave' they could recollect 
in their maritime experience.' 7 

" June 6//i, 4 a.m. — Off the entrance to Panama 
Harbour. 



PANAMA CITY. 341 

" The Golden Age has been firing rockets for the 
last hour, to wake up the sleepy-headed officials. 

" 2.30 a.m. — At last she fires her biggest gun, 
which is answered presently by the waving of a lamp 
on shore. Soon a native pilot comes off to us, 
and we are made fast to a buoy just inside the 
harbour, but still at a distance of a mile and a half 
from the city, and of two miles from the railway- 
pier, to which we shall have to be conveyed in a 
lighter. 

" 9 a.m. — I wish I could have seen more of Panama 
City; but a few hurried rambles through its unused 
colleges, its ruined convents, its grass-grown plazas, 
and its massive fortifications, lumbered with idle 
cannon of the splendid old bronze of Barcelona, is all 
that our short allowance of three hours has enabled 
me to accomplish. As the train does not start for 
another half-hour, I shall jot down my information 
and impressions on the spot. 

" The situation of the city at the base of a broad 
green mountain, three sides of which are washed by 
the sea, has a highly advantageous appearance. Yet 
other sites in the bay would have suited commercial 
purposes much better. Vessels of heavy draught 
cannot anchor within a mile of the nearest landing- 



342 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

place. Indeed but one point can be found where 
embarkation is practically safe, and that only after 
dug-outs made roughly by the natives. The bottom 
of the bay is a bed of rock, which at low tide lies 
quite bare, far out beyond the ramparts. It would 
cost enormous sums to blast and clear this away. 
The eastern shores of the bay form a portion of the 
South American continent; and the lofty mountain 
range inland is for ever wreathed with airy clouds, 
or shrouded from view by the storms it attracts. 
Thence westward are the verdure-covered isles of 
Taboga, and others not known to fame, but which 
serve beauteously to break the blue curve of the 
watery horizon. Panama is considered one of the 
most picturesque of the many picturesque cities of 
South America. Though small in extent, and as anti- 
quated as a city of some past age, it reveals ravishing 
points of interest, both externally and internally. I 
looked out of the angle of a venerable watch-tower 
in the ramparts, down upon the sparkling swells of 
the Pacific Ocean — it was my last view of the Pacific 
— and there before me at one glance lay presented to 
nvy vision the stupendous sweep of a hundred cur- 
vilinear miles, which the gulf takes on either side. 



IN EUINS. 343 

" The principal plaza in the city is fronted by a 
splendid college, left incomplete nearly a century back. 
It has a portico of red sandstone pillars, once proud 
and imposing. They are now broken and crumbling, 
whilst from the crevices of the pediments spring 
luxuriant banana creepers, shooting their large leaves 
through the classic windows, or folding them round 
the columns of the gateway. Sic transit gloria 
mundi. I thought the remains of the Jesuit church 
of San Felipe a grand old ruin. Majestic arches, 
betraying the mosarabic traditions of the architect, 
still intersect its long-drawn nave and aisles; but 
here again an overgrowth of wild vines festoons the 
spandrils of the arches and falls like fringe to the 
floor. The building has been roofless from time 
immemorial, yet daylight can scarce steal through 
the embowering foliage. And as though in silent 
mockery of the works of man, several bells with a 
silvery ring may be seen propped up by tottering 
beams, and stowed away in a dark corner. How 
many score of years is it since the crafty but devoted 
brotherhood rang those dulcet bells to call the faithful 
to the Oracion ? 

" Thus Panama. 



344 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

"11 a.m. — I am writing in the train. 

" Passing with the same slowness through the 
same gorgeous isthmus-land as two years back, 
every mile of the road exhibits well-remembered, 
yet ever new beauties. One misses the sharp-marked 
hills of the north, all outline of landscape being lost 
under this deluge of vegetation. Not a trace of soil 
can be discerned. Lowland and highland seem 
merged into one mass. A mountain is but a higher 
swell of the mass of leafy verdure. What shape the 
country would assume if cleared, who can tell? 
Meanwhile, your eye wanders over the scene with 
never-sated pleasure, until your brain aches again. 
And yet, as when contemplating the ocean, you have 
an indefinable sense rather than a direct perception 
of its beauty. 

u Isthmus railway-guards are either venal rascals 
or extremely accommodating to sight-seers — perhaps 
something of both. We have stopped at two or 
three villages for no ostensible purpose but to let 
the villagers squeeze money out of the travellers. 
Boys and girls brought us fruits, ofFering them with 
pretty Mexican-Indian words, which signify bite, sir. 
These natives are a mixture of the- Indian and 



A FANDANGO. 345 

Spanish races. Their skin is black. The boys, how- 
ever, took care to tell us that, although niggers, they 
were muclios caballeros — very much gentlemen. 

" 2 p.m. — We are driving on from a town where the 
Alcalde's daughters gave us a fandango. Fancy a 
whole train full dropping down at a station on the 
London and North Western, to take part in a ball, 
and then off again. 

" The ladies were dressed in pink and white, with 
flowers in their hair, and danced upon a green sward 
to the music of violins and guitars. Senora Cata- 
lina, a rich widow of pure Andalusian blood, danced 
charmingly, holding a crimson scarf up over her 
shoulders, and tossing her little head from side to 
side in the most inebriating manner. 

"Travelling across the Isthmus is certainly de- 
lightful." 

" 7th, 10 a.m. — At sea, on board the Ocean Queen, 
for New York. Only about a hundred passengers. 
Great difference between a homeward and outward 
voyage in that respect. 

" Our ship appears seaworthy. I recognise an 
improvement in the accommodation since my voyage 
out, if the other vessels of the line are to be judged from 



346 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 

this one. But can an Englishman ever find himself 
at home amongst citizens of the United States ?" 

" 8^, 4 p.m. — I did not think I should so soon 
have an apt illustration of the foregoing sentiment 
to enter in my Diary. 

" News of a desperate row in the forecastle. A 
smart-looking young Englishman, who was unfor- 
tunate at the gold-mines, and who joined the ship to 
work his way home, got into a quarrel with the 
boatswain, which has ended in the poor lad having to 
be put to bed in consequence of a zigzag cut from 
the right eye down to the neck, and another deep 
cut eight inches long up his left thigh, just above the 
knee. I hear the affair was duly reported to the 
Captain, who talked it over with his friend the chief 
mate, who laughed it over with his friend the second 
mate, who slurred it over with his friend the boat- 
swain. And there it will end, doubtless. 

"An Englishman deserves to be pitied, indeed, 
whose necessities oblige him to entrust either life or 
property to a country where everybody lives so freely 
that nobody has any rights, except through the in- 
tervention of a knife or a revolver. 

" lAth.- — Eounded Sandy Point, in the State of New 



ON THE WAY TO ENGLAND. 347 

Jersey, at nine o'clock this morning, after a quick but 
totally dull voyage of eight days from Aspinwall. 
Now at my hotel in New York, Broadway." 

Let it suffice to add that another week found me 
back at my Canadian head- quarters, in the city of 
Montreal, and on my way to dear Old England. 



THE END. 



LONDON : 

SAVILL, EDWARDS AND CO., PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET, 

COVENT GARDEN. 



13, Great Marlborough Street. 

MESSRS. HURST AND RLACKETT'S 

LIST OF NEW WORKS. 



THE LITERARY LIFE OF THE REV. WIL- 
LIAM HARNESS, Vicar of AU Saints, Knightsbridge, and Pre- 
bendary of St. Paul's. By the Rev. A. G. L'Estrange. 1 vol. 
8vo. 15s. 

LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT 

BEUGNOT, Minister of State under Napoleon I. Edited from the 
French, by Charlotte M. Yonge, author of the " Heir of Redclyffe," 
&c. 2 vols. 8vo. 30s. 

"Count Beugnot's own personal story 13 quite as interesting as that of the nation 
in which he counted for something under every regime. His autobiographical 
memoirs are more lively than any French stories of his contemporaries recently 
published In interest they surpass Augeard"s 'Me'moires Secrets. ' Count Beug- 
not's Memoirs, in short, are more attractive than those of Malouet. The illustrations 
of life and manners which they contain are by far the most amusing portions of 
this amusing book." — Athenteum. 

" Count Beugnot was a keen observer of men. He was on terms of equal inti- 
macy with celebrities of the most opposite characters and principles — with Madame 
de Lamotte and Madame Boland, with Necker and Danton, with Napoleon and 
Louis XVIIL The interest of these memoirs is very considerable." — Pall Mall 
Gazette. 

" This book is very interesting. M. de Beugnot was a barrister under Louis 
Seize, a prisoner under the Bevolution, Prefect of the Seine Inferieure, President 
of the Council of Kegency of the Grand Duchy of Berg, under Napoleon, Director 
General of Police and Postmaster under the Kestoration. The author of 'The 
Heir of Bedclyffe ' has done great service to English readers byfgiving us these two 
handsome volumes, which are full of the sort of history that is more romantic than 
romance, and which throw a flood of light on persons and things whose memory 
the world can never let die." — Standard. 

" We have to thank Miss Yonge for a book which contains many passages of great 
interest, and introduces us to scenes of historical value before, during, and after the 
French Kevolution.*' — Spectator. 

TURKISH HAREMS & CIRCASSIAN HOMES. 

By Mrs. Harvey, of Ickwell Bury. 8vo, with Coloured Illustra- 
tions. Second Edition. 15s. 

" Mrs. Harvey's book could scarcely fail to be pleasant, for the excursion of 
which it gives us an account must have been one of the most delightful and ro- 
mantic voyages that ever was made. Mrs. Harvey not only saw a great deal, but 
saw all that she did see to the best advantage. She was admitted into Turkish 
interiors which are rarely penetrated, and, protected by an escort, was able to ride 
far into the mountains of Circassia, whose lovely defiles are full of dangers which 
seal them to ordinary travellers. We cannot call to mind any account written of 
late years which is so full of valuable information upon Turkish household life. 
In noticing the intrinsic interest of Mrs. Harvey's book, we must not forget to say 
a word for her abihty as a writer." — Times. 

" This record of travel is pleasantly written ; its descriptions are vivid, and there 
are parts of the book, especially that comprehended under the title of Circassian 
Homes, which to most persons will have the charm of novelty. We take leave of 
the book with a hearty tribute to its varied merits." — Post. 

"Mrs. Harvey records her impressions of Turkey and Circassia in a lively and 
pleasant manner. The book has many attractions for untravelled readers. It 
contains the genuine criticisms of an English lady of culture on Eastern manners 
and civilization ; as well as many exact photographs of the places she visited and 
the persons she encountered" — Examiner. 



13, Great Marlborough Street. 

MESSES. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
NEW WORKS— Continued. 



MY EXPERIENCES OF THE WAR BETWEEN 

FRANCE AND GERMANY. By Archibald Forbes. One of the 

Special Correspondents of " The Daily News." 2 vols. 8 vo. 30s. 

" Mr. Forties's book is an extremely valuable contribution to the literature of 
the War. Not only is the book good in itself but it describes events which have 
no parallel in modern history." — Athenxum. 

" These volumes are well worth reading and preserving. There can be no doubt 
as to the shrewdness of Mr. Forties's observation and the vigour with which he sets 
down his impressions. They give his work a permanent value." — Examiner. 

" Mr. Forbes undoubtedly possesses the power of writing well and readably. He 
gives a vivid and interesting picture of the campaign." — Graphic. 

"This work will be read with unflagging interest. We recommend it as one of 
the best records of the war. It is written in a vivid and picturesque style, and is 
replete with incidents of personal adventure and narratives of absorbing interest, 
at once true and remarkable." — United Service Mag. 

"This is a work of considerable historical and literary merit The author is 
fortunate in being able to give his personal experiences of the principal episodes 
of the late war. Forbach, Sedan, Metz, Paris, all that is implied by the mention 
of these names we have a vivid account of in these volumes. The scenes described 
have been seized with the eye of an artist, and are presented to the reader as 
graphically as in a picture." — Echo. 

" The title of this book and the name of its author will be sufficient to recom- 
mend it to all readers of the Daily Mews. The qualities of the writer have met with 
a recognition ample and cordial to a degree of which there are scarcely any prece- 
dents in journalism. Mr. Forbes's adventurous spirit, his unfailing promptitude, 
his powers of keen perception and of graphic description, and the genial temper of 
pathos and humour which runs through all he writes, must be fresh in the recol- 
lection of our readers, and are as apparent in these volumes as they were in the 
original letters which form the material of the present work" — Daily News. 

" We have a pride as well as pleasure in recording the complete success of Mr. 
Forbes in the arduous task he had undertaken, because in youth his military spirit 
attracted him into our own service, and it was there he learnt that professional 
knowledge which gives such value and importance to his work Of every battle 
he describes Mr. Forbes may truly exclaim, Quorum pars fui, for he was there, 
almost in the front, under the hot fire, and catching the shouts of the combatants 
as they fought, or fell, or conquered. Worth, Gravelotte", Spichern, Sedan, Metz, 
their tactics, their struggles, their denouements, and their grand international results, 
all live over again in these brilliant pages." — United Service Gazette, 

DIARY OF THE BESIEGED RESIDENT IN 

PARIS. Reprinted from " The Daily News." With several 
NEW LETTERS and PREFACE. Second Edition Revised. 1 vol. 
8vo. 15s. 

" The missing Letters of the Besieged Kesident that now appear for the first 
time are in no way inferior to those that have had a first success in the columns 
of a contemporary, and should find it hard to say which we could spare." — Times. 

" ' The Diary of a Besieged Bcsidentin Paris' will certainly form one of the most 
remarkable records of a momentous episode in history." — Spectator. 

"On the whole, the Besieged Kesident must have had what the Americans call 
' a good time' in Paris. He led a life which, as reflected in his faithful pages, seem 
to have been full of interest. There is an entire absence of affectation in this 
writer which vastly commends him to us." — Pall Mall Gazette. 

" The Letters of the Besieged Kesident give a lively, minute, and, in the main, 
very accurate description of affairs in Paris during the four months of its isolation. 
Other kindred books will soon be published, but this volume is likely to be more 
valuable than any of the others, and we certainly cannot expect to find elsewhere 
so much fulness of detail or such vivid narration of events." — Examiner. 

" There is much in this volume of a permanent value, and we are glad to see it 
given to the world in a permanent shape." — Standard. 



13, Great Marlborough Street. 

MESSES. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
NEW WORKS— Continued. 



LIFE AND LETTERS OF WILLIAM BEWICK, 

THE ARTIST. Edited by Thomas Landseer, A.R.A. 2 vols, 
large post 8vo, with Portrait. 24s. 

" Mr. Landseer seems to have had a pious pleasure in editing this biography 
and these letters of his old friend. We should be wanting in our duty were we 
not to thank him for furnishing us with such interesting memorials of a man 
who did good work in his generation, but about whom so little is known." — Times. 

" Mr. Landseer's account of Bewick's life is altogether interesting. The volumes 
are a pleasant medley of autobiographical fragments, letters, literary criticisms, 
and anecdotes, judiciously strung together by Mr. Landseer with concise links of 
narrative, and the whole work gives a lively and most welcome view of the 
character and career of a man who is worth remembering on his own account, and 
yet, more on account of the friends and great men with whom he associated. There 
are very welcome references to Haydon, Wilkie, Wordsworth, Ugo Foscolo, Hazlitt, 
Sir Walter Scott, the Ettrick Shepherd, Shelley, Keats, Leigh Hunt, and a score or 
more of other men of whom the world can hardly hear too much." — Examiner. 

" The interest for general readers of this ' Life and Letters ' is derived almost en- 
tirely from anecdotes of men of mark with whom the artist associated, and of 
which it contains a very large and amusing store. His fellow pupil and old friend, 
Mr. Thomas Landseer, the famous engraver, has put the materials before us to- 
gether with much skill and a great deal of genial tact. The literary sketches which 
Bewick made of Hazlitt, Haydon, Shelley, Keats, Scott, Hogg, Jeffrey, Maturin, and 
others, are extremely bright, apt, and clear." — Athenseum. 

"Mr. Thomas Landseer has made many charmed readers his debtor by the 
'Life and Letters of William Bewick,' in many ways an interesting work Bewick 
became acquainted with many famous people, of whom he was careful to preserve 
recollections, abounding with anecdotes here given in full." — Daily Telegraph. 

" Two very amusing and readable volumes, full of anecdote and pleasant descrip- 
tion." — Art Journal. 

" This book will be found well worth reading, as well by general readers as by 
the artistic world."— Globe. 

" The biography of such a man is always worth writing. Bewick's own contri- 
butions to the task have considerable literary skill and even charm, and Mr. 
Landseer has performed his part with taste and discretion. It is a worthy homage 
from a man to his deceased friend not a few agreeable hours be spent in perusing 
it." — Observer. 

" William Bewick was an artist of eminence, a man of highly cultivated tastes, 
of romantic and poetical feelings, destined to have a wide acquaintance with all 
the men of his time best worth knowing, and intimate association with the most 
gifted and famous among them. His reminiscences are full, lively and interesting. 
His letters are full of charming anecdotes of all the celebrities of the day in litera- 
ture and art." — Chambers' Journal. 

IMPRESSIONS OF GREECE. By the Right 

Hon. Sir Thomas Wyse, K.O.B., Late British Minister at Athens. 
With an Introduction by Miss Wyse, and Letters from Greece to 
Friends at Home, by Dean Stanley. 8vo. 15s. 

" No book that we know gives so just and, at the same time, so enticing a view 
of Greece as she is and as she might be as ' Impressions of Greece.' The introduc- 
tion by Miss Wyse is an admirable paper. The chapters due to Dean Stanley are 
delightful."— Pall Mall Gazette. 

" It is pleasant to meet with a volume of such sterling and lasting interest, the 
joint authors having much valuable information to impart. Sir Thomas Wyse 
naturally enjoyed many opportunities of acquiring a thorough knowledge of the 
manners and customs, as well as the antiquities, of Greece ; and his niece is evi- 
dently possessed of a power of keen and lively observation, while Dean Stanley 
completes the volume with a series of graphic and intelligent letters, in that easy 
and pleasant style for which he is so well known. " — Standard. 

" Probably no other Englishman was so thoroughly acquainted with the life and 
"habits of Greece as Sir Thomas Wyse. We need say nothing in praise of the 
Letters of the Dean of Westminster, of their admirable style and pleasant descrip- 
tions." — Examiner. 



13, Great Marlborough Street. 

MESSRS. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
NEW WORKS— Continued. 



QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS : A Narrative 

of Discovery and Adventure in The North Pacific. By Francis 
Poole, C.E. Edited by John W. Lyndon. 1 vol. 8vo, with Map 
and Illustrations. 15s. (In the Press.) 

PRAIRIE FARMS AND PRAIRIE FOLK. By 

Parker Gdllmore (" Ubique"), Author of " A Hunter's Adven- 
tures in the Great West," &c. 2 vols crown 8vo, with Illustra- 
tions. 21s. (In the Press.) 

FREE RUSSIA. By W. Hepworth Dixon, Author 

of " New America," "Her Majesty's Tower," &c. Third Edition. 
2 vols. 8vo, with Coloured Illustrations. 30s. 

"Mr. Dixon's book will be certain not only to interest but to please its readers 
and it deserves to do so. It contains a great deal that is worthy of attention, and 
is likely to produce a very useful effect. The ignorance of the English people 
with respect to -Eussia has long been so dense that we cannot avoid being grateful 
to a writer who has taken the trouble to make personal acquaintance with that 
seldom- visited land, and to bring before the eyes of his countrymen a picture of 
its scenery and its people, which is so novel and interesting that it can scarcely 
fail to arrest their attention." — Saturday Review. 

" We claim for Mr. Dixon the merit of having treated his subject in a fresh and 
original manner. He has done his best to see with his own eyes the vast country 
which he describes, and he has visited some parts of the land with which few 
even among its natives are familiar, and he has had the advantage of being 
brought into personal contact with a number of those Eussians whose opinions 
are of most weight. The consequence is, that he has been able to lay before 
general readers such a picture of Eussia and the Eussian people as cannot fail to 
interest them." — Athenseum. 

" Mr. Dixon has invented a good title for his volumes on Eussia. The chapter on 
Lomonosoff, the peasant poet, is one of the best in the book, and the chapter on 
Kief is equally good. He gives an interesting and highly picturesque account of 
the working of the jury system in a case which he himself saw tried. The de- 
scriptions of the peasant villages, and of the habits and manners of the peasantry, 
are very good; in fact, the descriptions are excellent throughout the work." — Times. 

" Mr. Dixon has succeeded in producing a book which is at once highly valuable 
and eminently readable. In our judgment it is superior to any work that has 
proceeded from Mr. Dixon's pen, and we heartily recommend it to our readers. 
The information he conveys is very great, his judgments are evidently the result 
of much reflection, and his style is singularly forcible and picturesque." — Standard. 

" We heartily commend these volumes to all who wish either for instruction or 
relaxation. ' ' — Examiner. 

FAIR FRANCE : Impressions of a Traveller. 

By the Author of " John Halifax, Gentleman," &c. 8vo. 15s. 

"A book of value.and importance, and which is very agreeable reading. It is 
bright and spirited,.- and evinces as. much as ever the acuteness of perception and 
the powers of observation of the writer." — Post. 

" A pleasant book, conceived in a large, kindly, and liberal spirit." — Daily News. 

"This volume will be found pleasan treading." — Athenseum. 

" A good book on France is j ust. now most welcome, and this is emphatically a 
good book. It is charmingly, readable." — Globe. 

" This is a truly fascinating volume. The book has nothing to do with the present 
crisis. It is La Belle France .-—Paris, with its quiet churches audits gay carnival 
crowds, and the old provincial cities like Caen and Chartres— that is here described 
as it was before the black waves of invasion rolled over the land. There is much 
that is very beautiful and charming in these recollections."— Echo. 



13, Great Marlborough Street. 

MESSES. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
NEW WORKS— Continued. 



VOLS. III. & TV. of HER MAJESTY'S TOWER. 

By W. HEPWORTH DIXON. DEDICATED BY EXPRESS 
PERMISSION TO THE QUEEN. Completing the Work. Third 
Edition. Demy 8vo. 30s. 

Contests :— A Favourite ; A Favourite's Friend ; The Countess of Suffolk ; To the 
Tower ; Lady Catherine Manners ; House of Villiers ; Eevolution ; Fall of Lord 
Bacon ; A Spanish Match; Spaniolizing ; Henry De Vere ; The Matter of Hol- 
land ; Sea Affairs ; The Pirate War ; Port and Court ; A New Eomanzo ; Move 
and Counter-move ; Pirate and Prison ; In the Marshalsea ; The Spanish Olive ; 
Prisons Opened; A Parliament; Digby, Earl of Bristol; Turn of Fortune; Eliot 
Eloquent ; Felton's Knife ; An Assassin ; Nine Gentlemen in the Tower ; A 
King's Kevenge ; Charles I. ; Pillars of State and Church ; End of Wentworth ; 
Laud's Last Troubles; The Lieutenant's House; A Political Eomance; Phi- 
losophy at Bay ; Fate of an Idealist ; Britannia ; Killing not Murder; A Second 
Buckingham ; Boger, Earl of Castlemaine ; A Life of Plots ; The Two Penns ; 
A Quaker's Cell ; Colonel Blood ; Crown Jewels ; King and Colonel ; Eye House 
Plot ; Murder; A Patriot; The Good Old Cause; James, Duke of Monmouth; 
The Unjust Judge ; The Scottish Lords ; The Countess of Nithisdale ; Escaped; 
Cause of the Pretender ; Eeformers and Eeform , Eeform Eiots ; Sir Francis 
Burdett ; A Summons to the Tower ; Arthur Thistlewood ; A Cabinet Council ; 
Cato Street ; Pursuit ; Last Prisoners in the Tower. 



" Mr. Dixon's lively and accurate work" — Times. 

" This book is thoroughly entertaining, well-written, and instructive." — Examiner. 

" These volumes will place Mr. Dixon permanently on the roll of English authors 
who have rendered their country a service, by his putting on record a truthful and 
brilliant account of that most popular and instructive relic of antiquity. ' Her 
Majesty's Tower;' the annals of which, as related in these volumes, are by turns 
exciting and amusing, while they never fail to interest. Our ancient stronghold 
could have had no better historian than Mr. Dixon." — Post. 

"By his merits of literary execution, his vivacious portraitures of historical 
figures, his masterly powers of narrative and description, and the force and grace- 
ful ease of his style, Mr. Dixon will keep his hold upon a multitude of readers." — 
Illustrated News. 

"These volumes are two galleries of richly painted portraits of the noblest 
men and most brilliant women, besides others commemorated by English 
history. The grand old Eoyal Keep, palace and prison by turns, is revivified in 
these volumes, which close the narrative, extending from the era of Sir John Eliot, 
who saw Ealeigh die in Palace Yard, to that of Thistlewood, the last prisoner im- 
mured in the Tower. Few works are given to us, in these days, so abundant in 
originality and research as Mr. Dixon's.'' — Standar'd. 

"This intensely interesting work will become as popular as any book Mr. 
Dixon has written." — Messenger. 

" A work always eminently readable, often of fascinating interest." — Echo. 

" The most brilliant and fascinating of Mr. Dixon's literary achievements." — Sun. 

"Mr. Dixon has accomplished his task well. Few subjects of higher and more 
general interest than the Tower could have been found Around the old pile 
clings all that is most romantic in our history. To have made himself the trusted 
and accepted historian of the Tower is a task on which a writer of highest reputa- 
tion may well be proud. This Mr. Dixon has done. He has, moreover, adapted 
his work to all classes. To the historical student it presents the result of long 
and successful research in sources undiscovered till now; to the artist it gives the 
most glowing picture yet, perhaps, produced of the more exciting scenes of national 
history ; to the general reader it offers fact with all the graces of fiction. Mr. 
Dixon's book is admirable alike for the general view of history it presents, and for 
the beauty and value of its single pictures." — Sunday Times. 



13, Great Marlborough Street. 

MESSRS. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
NEW WORKS— Continued. 



VOL. I. OF HER MAJESTY'S TOWER. By W. 

HEPWORTH DIXON. DEDICATED BY EXPRESS PERMIS- 
SION TO THE QUEEN. Sixth Edition. Demy 8vo. 15s. 

Contents :— The Pile— Inner Ward and Outer Ward— The "Wharf— Eiver Rights— 
The White Tower — Charles of Orleans — Uncle Gloucester — Prison Rules — Beau- 
champ Tower— The good Lord Cobham— King and Cardinal — The Pilgrimage 
of Grace— Madge Cheyne— Heirs to the Crown — The Nine Days' Queen— De- 
throned — The Men of Kent — Courtney — No Cross no Crown — Cranmer, Lati- 
mer, Ridley — White Roses — Princess Margaret — Plot and Counterplot — Mon- 
sieur Charles — Bishop of Ross — Murder of Northumberland — Philip the Con- 
fessor — Mass in the Tower— Sir Walter Raleigh — The Arabella Plot — Raleigh's 
Walk— The Villain Waad— The Garden House— The Brick Tower. 



"From first to last this volume overflows with new information and original 
thought, with poetry and picture. In these fascinating pages Mr. Dixon dis- 
charges alternately the functions of the historian, and the historic biographer, with 
the insight, art, humour and accurate knowledge which never fail him when he 
undertakes to illumine the darksome recesses of our national story." — Morning Post. 

"We earnestly recommend this remarkable volume to those in que^t of amuse- 
ment and instruction, at once solid and refined. It is a most eloquent and graphic 
historical narrative, by a ripe scholar and an accomplished master of English dic- 
tion, and a valuable commentary on the social aspect of mediaeval and Tudor civil- 
ization. In Mr. Dixon's pages are related some of the most moving records of 
human flesh and blood to which human ear could listen." — Daily Telegraph. 

" It is needless to say that Mr. Dixon clothes the gray stones of the old Tower 
with a new and more living interest than most of us have felt before. It is need- 
less to say that the stories are admirably told, for Mr. Dixon's style is full of vigour 
and liveliness, and he would make a far duller subject than this tale of tragic suf- 
fering and heroism into an interesting volume. This book is as fascinating as a good 
novel, yet it has all the truth of veritable history." — Daily News. 

" We can highly recommend Mr. Dixon's work. It will enhance his reputation. 
The whole is charmingly written, and there is a life, a spirit, and a reality about 
the sketches of the celebrated prisoners of the Tower, which give the work the 
interest of a romance. ' Her Majesty's Tower' is likely to become one of the moat 
popular contributions to history." — Standard. 

A CRUISE IN GREEK WATERS ; with a Hunting 

Excursion in Tunis. By Capt. Townshend, 2nd Life Guards. 
1 vol. 8vo, with Illustrations. 

" Capt. Townshend writes about the foreign lands he has visited with good hu- 
mour and intelligence. His pictures of life in Algiers are vivid and truthful, and 
his narrative of boar-hunting in Tunis is especially worthy of notice." — Athenaeum. 

A TRIP TO THE TROPICS, AND HOME 

THROUGH AMERICA. By the Marquis of Lorne. Second 
Edition. 1 vol. 8vo, with Illustrations. 

"The tone of Lord Lome's book is thoroughly healthy and vigorous, und his 
remarks upon men and things are well-reasoned and acute." — Times. 

TRAVELS OF A NATURALIST IN JAPAN 

AND MANCHURIA. By Arthur Adams, F.L.S., Staff- Surgeon 
R.N. 1 vol. 8vo, with Illustrations. 

" An amusing volume. Mr. Adams has acquired a body of interesting informa- 
tion, which he has set forth in a lively and agreeable style. The book will be a 
favourite with naturalists, and is calculated to interest others as well." — Daily News. 



13, Great Marlborough Street. 

MESSRS. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
NEW WORKS— Continued. 



VOL. II. OF HER MAJESTY'S TOWER. By 

W. HEPWORTH DIXON. DEDICATED BY EXPRESS PER- 
MISSION TO THE QUEEN. Sixth Edition. Demy 8vo. 15s. 

Contents: — The Anglo-Spanish Plot — Factions at Court— Lord Grey of "Wilton — 
Old English Catholics— The English Jesuits— White Webbs— The Priests' Plot 
— Wilton Court — Last of a Noble Line— Powder-Plot Room— Guy Fawkes — 
Origin of the Plot — Vinegar House — Conspiracy at Large— The Jesuit's Move- 
In London — November, 1605— Hunted Down— In the Tower— Search for Gar- 
net — End of the English Jesuits— The Catholic Lords— Harry Percy — The 
Wizard Earl — A Eeal Arabella Plot— William Seymour — The Escape— Pursuit 
— Dead in the Tower— Lady Frances Howard— Robert Carr— Powder Poisoning. 



From the Tikes:— "All the civilized world— English, Continental, and Ame- 
rican — takes an interest in the Tower of London. The Tower is the stage 
upon which has been enacted some of the grandest dramas and saddest tragedies 
in our national annals. If, in imagination, we take our stand on those time-worn 
walls, and let century after century flit past us, we shall see in duo succession the 
majority of the most famous men and lovely women of England in the olden time. 
We shall see them jesting, jousting, love-making, plotting, and then anon, per- 
haps, commending their souls to God in the presence of a hideous masked figure, 
bearing an axe in his hands. It is such pictures as these that Mr. Dixon, with 
considerable skill as an historical limner, has set before us in these volumes. Mr. 
Dixon dashes off the scenes of Tower history with great spirit. His descriptions 
are given with such terseness and vigour that we should spoil them by any attempt 
at condensation. As favourable examples of his narrative powers we may call at- 
tention to the story of the beautiful but unpopular Elinor, Queen of Henry III., and 
the description of Anne Boleyn's first and second arrivals at the Tower. Then we 
have the story of the bold Bishop of Durham, who escapes by the aid of a cord 
hidden in a wine-jar; and the tale of Maud Fitzwalter, imprisoned and murdered 
by the caitiff John. Passing onwards, we meet Charles of Orleans, the poetic 
French Prince, captured at Agincourt, and detained for flve-and-twenty years a 
prisoner in the Tower. Next we encounter the baleful form of Richard of Gloucester, 
and are filled with indignation at the blackest of the black Tower deeds. As we 
draw nearer to modern times, we have the sorrowful story of the Nine Days' 
Queen, poor little Lady Jane Grey. The chapter entitled "No Cross, no Crown " 
is one of the most affecting in the book A mature man can scarcely read it with- 
out feeling the tears ready to trickle from his eyes. No part of the first volume 
yields in interest to the chapters which are devoted to the story of Sir Walter 
Raleigh The greater part of the second volume is occupied with the story of the 
Gunpowder Plot. The narrative is extremely interesting, and will repay perusal. 
Another cause celebre possessed of a perennial interest, is the murder of Sir Thomas 
Overbury by Lord and Lady Somerset. Mr. Dixon tells the tale skilfully. In con- 
clusion, we may congratulate the author on this, his latest work. Both volumes 
are decidedly attractive, and throw much light on our national history, but we 
think the palm of superior interest must be awarded to the second volume." 

A HUNTER'S ADVENTURES IN THE GREAT 

WEST. By Parker Gillmore (" Ubique"), author of " Gun, Rod, 
and Saddle," &c. 1 vol. 8vo, with Illustrations. 15s. 

" A good volume of sports and spirited adventure. We have thoroughly enjoyed 
Mr. Gillmore's work. It would be difficult to speak in too high terms of his pluck, 
enterprise and energy " — Pall Mall Gazette. 

" An interesting, amusing, and instructive book"— Examiner. 

" A volume of exceeding interest, full of exciting and spiritedly told adventure." 
— Sunday Times. 

THE LIFE OF ROSSINI. By H. Sutherland 

Edwards. 1 vol. 8vo, with fine Portrait. 
" A.n eminently interesting, readable, and trustworthy book,"— Sunday Times. 



13, Great Marlborough: Street. 

MESSRS HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
NEW WORKS— Continued. 



ANNALS OF OXFORD. By J. C. Jeaffreson, 

B.A., Oxon. Author of "A Book About the Clergy," &c. Second 
Edition. 2 vols. 8vo. 30s. 

Contents : — The Cross Keys ; King Alfred's Expulsion from Oxford ; Chums snd In- 
mates ; Classical Schools and Benefactions ; Schools and Scholars ; On Learn- 
ing and certain Incentives to it; Colleges and Halls; Structural Newness of 
Oxford; Arithmetic gone Mad; Reduction of the Estimates; A Happy Family; 
Town and Gown ; Death to the Legate's Cook ; The Great Riot ; St. Scholastica ; 
King's College Chapel used as a Playhouse ; St. Mary's Church ; Ladies in Resi- 
dence ; Gownswomen of the 17th Century ; The Birch in the Bodleian ; Aularian 
Rigour; Royal Smiles : Tudor, Georgian, Elizabeth and Stuart ; Royal Pomps; 
Oxford in Arms ; The Cavaliers in Oxford ; Henrietta Maria's Triumph and 
Oxford's Capitulation ; The Saints Triumphant ; Cromwellian Oxford ; Alma 
Mater in the Days of the Merry Monarch ; The Sheldonian Theatre ; Gardens 
and Walks ; Oxford Jokes and Sausages ; Terra) Filii ; The Constitution Club ; 
Nicholas Amhurst; Commemoration ; Oxford in the Future. 
" The pleasantest and most informing book about Oxford that has ever been 
written. "Whilst these volumes will be eagerly perused by the sons of Alma Mater, 
they will be read with scarcely less interest by the general reader." — Post. 

"Those who turn to Mr. Jeaffreson's highly interesting work for solid informa- 
tion or for amusement, will not be disappointed. Rich in research and full of 
antiquarian interest, these volumes abonnd in keen humour and well-bred wit 
A scholar-like fancy brigntens every page. Mr. Jeaffreson is a very model of a 
cicerone ; full of information, full of knowledge. The work well deserves to be 
read, and merits a permanent niche in the library-" — The Graphic. 

" Mr. Jeaffreson is, par excellence, a popular writer. He chooses what is pic- 
turesque and of general interest. * * No one can read these Annals of Oxford 
without feeling a very deep interest in their varied contents." — Athenseum. 

"These interesting volumes should be read not only by Oxonians, but by all 
students of English history." — John Bull. 

A BOOK ABOUT THE CLERGY. By J. C. 

Jeaffreson, B.A., Oxon, author of " A Book about Lawyers," " A 
Book about Doctors," &c. Second Edition. 2 vols 8vo. 30s. 

"This is a book of sterling excellence, in which all — laity as well as clergy — will 
find entertainment and instruction : a book to be bought and placed permanently 
in our libraries. It is written in a terse and lively style throughout, it is eminently 
fair and candid, and is full of interesting information on almost every topic that 
Berves to illustrate the history of the English clergy" — Times. 

FRANCIS THE FIRST IN CAPTIVITY AT 

MADRID, and other Historic Studies. By A. Baillie Cochrane, 
M.P. Second Edition. 2 vols, post 8 vo. 
" A pleasant, interesting, and entertaining work." — Daily News. 

SPIRITUAL WIVES. By W. Hepworth Dixon, 

Author of ' New America,' &c. Fourth Edition, with A New 
Preface. 2 vols. 8 vo. With Portrait of the Author. 30s. 

"Mr. Dixon has treated his subject in a philosophical spirit, and in his usual 
graphic manner. There is, to our thinking, more pernicious doctrine in one chap- 
ter of some of the sensational novels which find admirers in drawing-rooms and 
eulogists in the press than in the whole of Mr. Dixon's interesting work" — Examiner. 

LUCREZIA BORGIA, Duchess of Ferrara; A 

Biography : Illustrated by Rare and Unpublished Documents. By 
William Gilbert. 2 vols, post 8vo, with Portrait. 
" A very interesting study of the character of Lucrezia Borgia." — Saturday Review. 



13, Great Marlborough Street. 

MESSRS. HUEST AND BLACKETT'S 
NEW WORKS— Continued. 



THE CITIES OF THE NATIONS FELL. By 

the Rev. John Cumming, D.D. 1 vol. crown 8vo, 6s. (Just Ready.) 

THE SEVENTH VIAL; or, THE TIME OF 

TROUBLE BEGUN, as shoAvn in THE GREAT WAR, THE 
DETHRONEMENT OF THE POPE, and other Collateral Events. 
By the Rev. John Cummtng, D.D., &c. Third Edition. 1 vol. 6s. 

" Dr. Gumming is the popular exponent of a school of prophetic interpretation, 
and on this score has established a claim to attention. His book furnishes an 
instructive collection of the many strange portents of our day. Dr. Cumming takes 
his facts very fairly. He has a case, and the gravity of the subject must command 
the attention of readers." — Times, March 6. 

" A deeply interesting work. We commend it to all who wish for able and honest 
assistance in understanding the signs of the times." — Record. 

A RAMBLE INTO BRITTANY. By the Rev. 

G. Musgrave, M.A., Oxon. 2 vols., with Illustrations. 

"Mr. Musgrave is a man of considerable information, and good powers of obser- 
vation. His book is interesting and amusing.'' — Pall Mall Gazette. 

" Mr. Musgrave always writes pleasantly, and manages to combine instruction 
and entertainment in very agreeable proportions." — Examiner. 

A TOUR ROUND ENGLAND. By Walter 

Thorxbdrt. 2 vols, post 8vo, with Illustrations. 

•' Mr. Thornbury is deservedly popular as a pleasant, genial writer, and has writ- 
ten two most amusing volumes on some of the most interesting places in Eng- 
land, which we have read with considerable interest, and can heartily recom- 
mend " — Examiner. 

WILD LIFE AMONG THE KOORDS. By 

Major F. Millingen, F.R.G.S. 8vo, with Illustrations. 
" A thoroughly interesting work, which we heartily recommend" — Examiner. 

MY HOLIDAY IN AUSTRIA. By Lizzie Selxna 

Eden. 1 vol. post 8vo, with Illustrations. 
M A pleasantly-written volume." — Pall Mall Gazette. 

MEMOIRS OF QUEEN HORTENSE, MOTHER 

OF NAPOLEON III. Cheaper Edition, in 1 vol. 6s. 
M A biography of the beautiful and unhappy Queen, more satisfactory than any we 
have yet met with." — Daily News. 

THE LAD YE SHAKERLEY ; being the Record of 

the Life of a Good and Noble Woman. A Cheshire Story. By 
ONE of the HOUSE of EGERTON. Second Edition. 1 vol. 6s. 

" This charming novelette pleasantly reminds one of the well-known series of 
stories by the author of 'Mary Powell.' The characters bear the same impress of 
truthfulness, and the reader is made to feel equally at home among scenes sketched 
with a ready hand. The author writes gracefully, and has the faculty of placing 
before others the pictures her own imagination has called up." — Pall Mall Gazette. 

" The interest of the work is of a kind which is unique. Fiction has been made 
to illustrate history in a manner which is at once unobtrusive and powerful" — Post. 

FAIRY FANCIES. By Lizzie Selina Eden. Il- 
lustrated by the Marchioness of Hastings. 1 vol. 



THE NEW AND POPULAR NOVELS, 

PUBLISHED BY HURST & BLACKETT. 



HANNAH. By the Author of "John Halifax." 

2 vols. (Just Ready.) 

THE SYLVESTRES. By M. Betham-Edwards, 

author of " Kitty," " Doctor Jacob," &c. 3 vols. 

WILFRID CUMBERMEDE. By George Mac 

Donald, LL.D., author of " Robert Falconer." 3 v. (Just Ready. j 

THE LADY OF LYNDON. By Lady Blake. 3 v. 
MINE OWN FAMILIAR FRIEND. By the Hon. 

Mrs. Montgomery. 3 vols. (Just Ready.) 

LOVE AND VALOUR. By Tom Hood. 3 vols. 

" Mr. Hood has written a story which in many parts is not inferior to the pro- 
ductions of any living novelist. The characters are sketched with a masterly hand. 
Amusing as the author can be when he chooses to write in a light vein, it is to the 
pathetic portons of his story that we turn with most interest. The deaths of Tom 
Martindale and Edward Harding are masterpieces of pathetic description ; and 
they will move the reader not less than does the word-picture of the last hours of 
Little Nell in ' The Old Curiosity Shop.' ' Love and Valour ' is one of the best 

novels that has been published for a longtime." — Morning Post. "An excellent 

novel. It will be widely read." — Echo. " This story is exquisitely told." — Mes- 
senger. " ' Love and Valour' is likely to be widely popular. The style is very 

animated The dialogue is full of wit and spirit." — Sunday Times. 

THE MORRICES ; or, the Doubtful Marriage. By 

G. T. Lowth, author of " Around the Kremlin." 3 vols. 
" The characters are mostly well drawn and consistent. Susan is charming. 

Harding and Mrs. Print are capital figures The story is told in a pleasant 

narrative style On the whole, we can recommend 'The Morrices.' " — Athe- 
naeum. " A clever and entertaining novel." — Observer. "In its tone, its con- 
ception, and its execution this story will, we venture to predict, gain for itself the 
approving suffrages of its readers." — Post. 

SUN AND SHADE. By the Author of "Ursula's 

Love Story." 3 vols. 

" An interesting story. It exhibits the merits of refined and easy language, 
natural delineation of the manners of social life, and insight into the feelings and 
motives of mankind" — Globe. 

" Many readers will be glad of such a genuine love story, pure and simple, as 
1 Sun and Shade.' We have thoroughly enjoyed the book." — Examiner. 

MAGGIE'S SECRET. By Mary Charlotte 

Phillpotts. 2 vols. 
"A book which every one should read. The tone is so good and pure, the tale 
so natural, the plot so masterly, and the interest so enthralling, that one cannot 

lay it aside." — John Bull. " A pleasant and interesting novel." — Morning Post. 

" In this agreeable tale the interest is well sustained and the denouement is equally 
attractive. In these days of sensational novels it is refreshing to meet with a story 
modelled on the style in which Miss Austen and Miss Ferrier triumphed" — Messenger 

MALVlNA. By H. Sutherland Edwards. 3 vols. 

" The story of 'Malvina' is very lightly and pleasantly written." — Times. "A 

charming story. It is wonderfully entertaining throughout." — Graphic. " One of 

the best and most attractive novels of the season. Its interest, its story, and its 
treatment are all good.'' — Sunday Times. 

10 



THE NEW AND POPULAR NOVELS, 

PUBLISHED BY HUEST & BLACKETT. 



SQUIRE ARDEN. By Mrs. Oliphant, author of 

"Chronicles of Carlingford," " Salem Chapel," &c. 3 vols. 

"Mrs. Oliphant's new book will not diminish her already established reputation. 
It possesses most of the characteristics of a successful novel. The plot is inter- 
esting and well managed, the scene well laid, and the characters various and 
forcibly described." — Athenaeum. * 

" Mrs. Oliphant has a place of her own among the best novelists of the day. She 
keeps up the reader's interest from the first page to the last ' Squire Arden ' is 
very clever." — Examiner. 

ARTISTE. By Maria M. Grant. 3 vols. 

"A tale of very great beauty." — John Bull. " In every respect, whether of de- 
sign, execution, or style, this novel will be found up to the requirements of a story 
of its class." — Post— — " The interest in the hero and heroine is cleverly sustained. 
The strength of the book lies in the analysis of character." — Attenxum. 

THE HOUSE OF PEROIVAL. By the Rev. John 

C. Boyce, M.A., Oxon. 3 vols. 

"The faculty of novel writing is by no means wanting in the author. There is 
capacity for describing scenery, and a capability of conceiving characters suffi- 
ciently out of the common run to be well played out ; and there are delineations 
of parish life which are alternately interesting and amusing. Nothing can be 
better than the portrayal of a young High Church rector, Philip DevereL" — Post. 

RESTORED. By the Author of " Son and Heir." 3 v. 

" This is an exceptionally good novel, and will be widely read. It stirs the 
reader's deepest feelings ; its characters are new ; its plans and incidents original." 

— Post " There is a good deal of freshness and vivacity about this story, and 

some good painting, both of scenery and character." — Saturday Review. "An 

excellent book" — Spectator. 

JAMES GORDON'S WIFE. 3 vols. 

" This novel is conceived and executed in the purest spirit. The illustrations of 
society are cleverly and spiritedly done." — Post. " An interesting novel, plea- 
santly written, refined in tone, and easy in style." — Globe. "The book is alto- 
gether agreeable reading." — Graphic. " This story is throughout interesting. The 

moral is good, the plot well conceived and executed." — John Bull. 

RALPH THE HEIR. By Anthony Trollope. 3 v. 

" A very interesting novel. The episodes of Sir Thomas Underwood's election- 
eering experiences and the whole of the Neefit courtship are, in our opinion, the 
strong points of the book. Probably no man alive, now that Charles Dickens has 
departed, can write on such subjects so humourously and so truthfully as Mr. 
Trollope."— The Times. 

THE NEXT GENERATION. By John Francis 

Maguire, M.P. Second Edition. 3 vols. 
" Mr. Maguire's clever book will well repay perusal." — Times. 

MY LITTLE LADY. 3 vols. 

" There is a great deal of fascination about this book The author writes in a 
clear, unaffected style. She has a decided gift for depicting character; while the 
descriptions of scenery scattered up and down the book convey a distinct pic- 
torial impression to the reader." — Times. 

HER OWN FAULT. By Mrs. J. K. Spender. 3 v. 

"This novel is full of power and as full of interest." — Morning Post. 
" This story is vigorous and original, and the characters are marked by strong 
individuality. '"—British Quarterly Review. 

11 



Shtfrer % (ff special ^atarage 0f Per lltaj£stg. 

Published annually, in One Vol., royal Svo, with the Arms beautifully 
engraved, handsomely bound, with gilt edges, price 31s. 6d. 

LODGE'S PEERAGE 

AND BARONETAGE, 

CORRECTED BY THE NOBILITY. 



THE PORTIETH EDITION POE, 1871 IS NOW EEADT. 

Lodge's Peerage and Baronetage is acknowledged to be the most 
complete, as well as the most elegant, work of the kind. As an esta- 
blished and authentic authority on all questions respecting the family- 
histories, honours, and connections of the titled aristocracy, no work has 
ever stood so high. It is published under the especial patronage of Her 
Majesty, and is annually corrected throughout, from the personal com- 
munications of the Nobility. It is the only work of its class in which, tfte 
type being kept constantly standing, every correction is made in its proper 
place to the date of publication, an advantage which gives it supremacy 
over all its competitors. Independently of its full and authentic informa- 
tion respecting the existing Peers and Baronets of the realm, the most 
sedulous attention is given in its pages to the collateral branches of the 
various noble families, and the names of many thousand individuals are 
introduced, which do not appear in other records of the titled classes. For 
its authority, correctness, and facility of arrangement, and the beauty of 
its typography and binding, the work is justly entitled to the place it 
occupies on the tables of Her Majesty and the Nobility. 



LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL CONTENTS. 



Historical View of the Peerage. 

Parliamentary Poll of the House of Lords. 

English, Scotch, and Irish Peers, in their 
orders of Precedence. 

Alphabetical List of Peers of Great Britain 
and the United Kingdom, holding supe- 
rior rank in the Scotch or Irish Peerage. 

Alphabetical list of Scotch and Irish Peers, 
holding superior titles in the Peerage of 
Great Britain and the United Kingdom. 

A Collective list of Peers, in their order of 
Precedence. 

Table of Precedency among Men. 

Table of Precedency among Women. 

The Queen and the Eoyal Family. 

Peers of the Blood Eoyal. 

The Peerage, alphabetically arranged. 

Families of such Extinct Peers as have left 
Widows or Issue. 

Alphabetical List of the Surnames of all the 
Peers. 



The Archbishops and Bishops of England, 
Ireland and the Colonies. 

The Baronetage alphabetically arranged 

Alphabetical List of Surnames assumed by 
members of Noble Families. 

Alphabetical List of the Second Titles of 
Peers, usually borne by their Eldest 
Sons. 

Alphabetical Index to the Daughters of 
Dukes, Marquises, and Earls, who, hav- 
ing married Commoners, retain the title 
of Lady before their own Christian and 
their Husband's Surnames. 

Alphabetical Index to the Daughters of 
Viscounts and Barons, who, having 
married Commoners, are styled Honour- 
able Mrs. ; and, in case of the husband 
being a Baronet or Knight, Honourable 
Lady. 

Mottoes alphabetically arranged and trans- 
lated 



"Awork which corrects all errors of formerworks. It is a most useful publication. 
We are happy to bear testimony to the fact that scrupulous accuracy is a distinguish- 
ing feature of this book" — Times. 

"Lodge's Peerage must supersede all other works of the kind, for two reasons: first, it 
is on a better plan ; and secondly, it is better executed. We can safely pronounce it to be 
the readiest, the most useful, and exactest of modern works on the subject." — Spectator. 

"Awork of great value. It is the most faithful record we possess of the aristo- 
cracy of the day." — Post. 

" The best existing, and, we believe, the best possible Peerage. It is the standard 
authority on the subject."— Standard. 

12 



HURST & BLACKETT'S STANDARD LIBRARY 

OF CHEAP EDITIONS OF 

POPULAR MODERN WORKS, 

ILLUSTRATED BY MILLAIS, HOLM AN HUNT, LEECH, BIRKET FOSTER, 
JOHN GILBERT, TENNIEL, SANDYS, E. HUGHES, &C. 

Each in a Single Volume, elegantly printed, bound, and illustrated, price 6s. 



I.— SAM SLICK'S NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE. 

''The first volume of Messrs. Hurst and Blacketfs Standard Library of Cheap Editions 
forms a very good beginning to what will doubtless be a very successful uudertaking. 
4 Nature and Human Nature ' is one of the best of Sam Slick's witty and humorous 
productions, and is well entitled to the large circulation which it cannot fail to obtain 
in its present convenient and cheap shape. The volume combines with the great recom- 
mendations of a clear, bold type, and good paper, the lesser but attractive merit3 of 
being well illustrated and elegantly bound" — Post. 

II.— JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN. 

" This is a very good and a very interesting work It is designed to trace the career 
from boyhood to age of a perfect man — a Christian gentleman; and it abounds in inci- 
dent both well and highly wrought. Throughout it is conceived in a high spirit, and 
written with great ability. This cheap and handsome new edition is worthy to pass 
freely from hand to hand as a gift book in many households." — Examiner. 

" The new and cheaper edition of this interesting work will doubtless meet with great 
success. John Halifax, the hero of this most beautiful story, is no ordinary hero, and 
this his history is no ordinary book It is a full-length portrait of a true gentleman, one 
of nature's own nobility. It is also the history of a home, and a thoroughly English 
one. The work abounds in incident, and is full of graphic power and true pathos. It 
is a book that few will read without becoming wiser and. better." — Scotsman. 

III.— THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS. 

BY ELIOT WARBURTON. 

" Independent of its value as an original narrative, and its useful and interesting 
information, this work is remarkable for the colouring power and play of fancy with 
which its descriptions are enlivened Among its greatest and most lasting charms is 
its reverent and serious spirit." — Quarterly Review. 

IY.— NATHALIE. By JULIA KAVANAGH. 

" ' Nathalie' is Miss Kavanagh's best imaginative effort. Its manner is gracious and 
attractive. Its matter is good. A sentiment, a tenderness, are commanded by her 
which are as individual as they are elegant." — Athe.nxum. 

V.— A WOMAN'S THOUGHTS ABOUT WOMEN. 

BY THE AUTHOR OF "JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 

" A book of sound counsel. It is one of the most sensible works of its kind, well- 
•vrritten, true-hearted, and altogether practical. Whoever wishes to give advice to a 
young lady may thank the author for means of doing so." — Examiner. 

VI.— ADAM GRAEME. By MRS. OLIPHANT. 

" A story awakening genuine emotions of interest and delight by its admirable pic- 
tures of Scottish life and scenery. The author sets before us the essential attributes of 
Christian virtue, their deep and silent workings in the heart, and their beautiful mani- 
festations in life, with a delicacy, power, and truth which can hardly be surpassed'-Po** 

VLL— SAM SLICK'S WISE SAWS AND MODERN 
INSTANCES. 

" The reputation of this book will stand as long as that of Scott's or Bulwer's Novels. 
Its remarkable originality and happy descriptions of American life still continue the 
sub jectof universal admiration The new edition forms a part of Messrs. Hurst and 
Blacketfs Cheap Standard Library, which has included some of he very best specimens 
of light literature that ever have been written."— Messenger. 

13 



HUEST & BLACKETPS STANDAKD LIBRARY 

(CONTINUED.) 



VIII.— CARDINAL WISEMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS OF 
THE LAST FOUR POPES. 

" A picturesque book on Home and its ecclesiastical sovereigns, by an eloquent Eoman 
Catholic. Cardinal Wiseman has treated a special subject with so much geniality, that 
his recollections will excite no ill-feeling in those who are most conscientiously opposed 
to every idea of human infallibility represented in Papal domination." — Athenaeum. 

IX.— A LIFE FOR A LIFE. 

BY THE AUTHOR OP " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 

" In ' A Life for a Life ' the author is fortunate in a good subject, and has produced a 
work of strong effect "~ A thenseum. 

X.— THE OLD COURT SUBURB. By LEIGH HUNT. 

"A delightful book, that will be welcome to all readers, and most welcome to those 
who have a love for the best kinds of reading." — Examiner. 

"A mors agreeable and entertaining book has not been published since Boswell pro- 
duced his reminiscences of Johnson." — Observer. 

XI.— MARGARET AND HER BRIDESMAIDS. 

" We recommend all who are in search of a fascinating novel to read this work for 
themselves. They will find it well worth their while. There are a freshness and ori- 
ginality about it quite charming." — Athenaeum. 

XIL— THE OLD JUDGE. By SAM SLICK. 

" The publications included in this Library have all been of good quality ; many give 
information while they entertain, and of that class the book before us is a specimen. 
The manner in which the Cheap Editions forming the series is produced, deserves 
especial mention. The paper and print are unexceptionable ; there is a steel engraving 
in each volume, and the outsides of them will satisfy the purchaser who likes to see 
books in handsome uniform." — Examiner. 

XIII.— DARIEN. By ELIOT WARBURTON. 

" This last production of the author of ' The Crescent and the Cross ' has the same 
elements of a very wide popularity. It will please its thousands."— Globe. 

XIV.— FAMILY ROMANCE ; OR, DOMESTIC ANNALS 
OF THE ARISTOCRACY. 

BY SIR BERNARD BURKE, ULSTER KING OF ARMS. 
" It were impossible to praise too highly this most interesting book It ought to be 
found on every drawing-room table." — Standard. 

XV.— THE LAIRD OF NORLAW. By MRS. OLIPHANT. 

" The ' Laird of Norlaw ' fully sustains the author's high reputation."— Sunday Times. 

XVI.— THE ENGLISHWOMAN IN ITALY. 

" We can praise Mrs. Gretton's book as interesting, unexaggerated, and full of oppor- 
tune instruction."— Times. 

XVII.— NOTHING NEW. 

BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 

" ' Nothing New ' displays all those superior merits which have made ' John Halifax 
one of the most popular works of the day." — Post. 

XVni.— FREER'S LIFE OF JEANNE D'ALBRET. 

"Nothing can be more interesting than Miss Freer's story of the life of Jeanne 
D'Albret, and the narrative is as trustworthy as it is attractive." — Post. 

XIX.— THE VALLEY OF A HUNDRED FIRES. 

BY THE AUTHOR OF "MARGARET AND HER BRIDESMAIDS." 

" If asked to classify this work, w e should give it a place between ' John Halifax * and 
The Caxtons.' " — Standard. 



HURST & BLACKETT'S STANDARD LIBRARY 

(continued.; 



XX.— THE ROMANCE OF THE FORUM. 

BY PETER BURJKE, SERGEANT AT LAW. 
" A work of singular interest, which can never fail to charm. The present cheap and 
elegant edition includes the true story of the Colleen Bawn." — Illustrated News. 

XXI.— ADELE. By JULIA KAVANAGH. 

" ' Adele ' is the best work we have read by Miss Kavanagh ; it is a charming story, 
full of delicate character-painting." — At/ienseum, 

XXII.— STUDIES FROM LIFE. 

BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 

" These ' Studies from Life ' are remarkable for graphic power and observation. Th 
book will not dimmish the reputation of the accomplished author."— Saturday Review. 

XXIIL— GRANDMOTHER'S MONEY. 

" We commend ' Grandmother's Money ' to readers in search of a good novel. The 
characters are true to human nature, the story is interesting." — Athenseum. 

XXIV.— A BOOK ABOUT DOCTORS. 

BY J. C. JEAFFRESON. 
" A delightful book" — Athenseum. " A book to be read and re-read ; fit for the study 
as well as the drawing-room table and the circulating library." — Lancet 

XXV.— NO CHURCH. 

" We advise all who have the opportunity to read this book" — Athenseum, 

XXVI.— MISTRESS AND MAID. 

BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 

" A good wholesome book, gracefully written, and as pleasant to read as it is instruc 
tive." — Athenoeum. " A charming tale charmingly told." — Standard, 

XXVII.— LOST AND SAVED. By HON. MRS. NORTON. 

" ' Lost and Saved ' will be read with eager interest. It is a vigorous novel." — Times. 
" A novel of rare excellence. It is Mrs. Norton's best prose work." — Examiner. 

XXVin.— LES MISERABLES. By VICTOR HUGO. 

AUTHORISED COPYRIGHT ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
"The merits of 'Les Miserables' do not merely consist in the conception of it as a 
whole ; it abounds, page after page, with details of unequalled beauty. In dealing with 
all the emotions, doubts, fears, which go to make up our common humanity, M. Victor 
Hugo has stamped upon every page the hall-mark of genius."— Quarterly Review. 

XXIX.— BARBARA'S HISTORY. 

BY AMELIA B. EDWARDS. 
" It i not often that we light upon a novel of so much merit and interest as ' Barbara's 
History.' It is a work conspicuous for taste and literary culture. It is a very graceful 
and charming boolc, with a well-managed story, clearly-cut characters, and sentiments 
expressed with an exquisite elocution It is a book which the world will like. This is 
high praise of a work of art, and so we intend it." — Times. 

XXX.— LIFE OF THE REV. EDWARD IRVING. 

BY MRS. OLIPHANT. 

" A good book on a most interesting theme." — Times. 

" A truly interesting and most affecting memoir. Irving's Life ought to have a niche 
in every gallery of religious biography. There are few lives that will be fuller of in- 
struction, interest, and consolation." — Saturday Review. 

"Mrs. Oliphanfs Life of Irving supplies a long-felt desideratum. It is copious 
earnest and eloquent."— Edinburgh Review. 

15 



HURST & BLACKETT'S STANDARD LIBRARY 

(CONTINUED.) 
XXXL— ST. OLAVE'S. 

" This charming novel is the work of one who possesses a great talent for writing, as 
well as experience and knowledge of the world. ' St. Olave's ' is the work of an artist. 
The whole book is worth reading." — Athenosum. 

XXXII.— SAM SLICK'S AMERICAN HUMOUR. 

" Dip where you will into the lottery of fun, you are sure to draw out a prize." — Post. 

XXXIII.— CHRISTIAN'S MISTAKE. 

BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 

" A more charming story, to our taste, has rarely been written. The writer has hit 
off a circle of varied characters all true to nature. Even if tried by the standard of 
the Archbishop of York, we should expect that even he would pronounce ' Christian's 
Mistake ' a novel without a fault." — Times. 

XXXIV.— ALEC FORBES OF HOWGLEN. 

BY GEORGE MAC* DONALD, LL.D. 

" No account of this story would give any idea of the profound interest that pervades 
the work from the first page to the last." — Athenaeum. 

XXXV.— AGNES. By MRS. OLIPHANT. 

" ' Agnes ' is a novel superior to any of Mrs. Oliphant's former works." — Athenaeum. 
" A story whose pathetic beauty will appeal irresistibly to all readers." — Post. 

XXXVI.— A NOBLE LIFE. 

BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 

" This is one of those pleasant tales in which the author of ' John Halifax ' speaks 
out of a generous heart the purest truths of life." — Examiner. 

XXXVII.— NEW AMERICA. By HEPWORTH DIXON. 

" A very interesting book. Mr. Dixon has written thoughtfully and well."— Times. 
Mr. Dixon's very entertaining and instructive work on New America." — Pall Mall Gaz. 
"We recommend every one who feels any interest in human nature to read Mr. 
Dixon's very interesting book." — Saturday Review. 

XXXVIII.— ROBERT FALCONER. 

BY GEORGE MAC DONALD, LL.D. 

" ' Robert Falconer ' is a work brimful of life and humour and of the deepest human 
interest. It is a book to be returned to again and again for the deep and searching 
knowledge it evinces of human thoughts and feelings." — Athenosum. 

XXXIX.— THE WOMAN'S KINGDOM 

BY THE AUTHOR OF "JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 

" ' The Woman's Kingdom ' sustains the author's reputation as a writer of the 
purest and noblest kind of domestic stories. — Athenseum. 

XL.— ANNALS OF AN EVENTFUL LIFE. 

BY GEORGE WEBBE DASENT, D.O.L. 

"A racy, well- written, and original novel. The interest never flags. The whole 
work sparkles with wit and humour." — Quarterly Review. 

XLL— DAVID ELGINBROD. 

BY GEORGE MAC DONALD, LL.D. 

■ " A novel which is the work of a man of true genius. It will attract the highest 
class of readers." — Times. 

XLIL— A BRAVE LADY. 

BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 

" A very good novel ; a thoughtful, well- written book, showing a tender sympathy 
with human nature, and permeated by a pure and noble spirit."— Examiner. 

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